Le Guen Loses His Game of Chicken With Murray and Ferguson
It was always going to be a gutsy move by the Rangers manager to front up to fan favourite and star player Barry Ferguson and ultimately it seems to have led to Paul Le Guen’s removal from his post at Ibrox today, supposedly by mutual consent.
As Fraser said in his piece yesterday there can be only one and obviously David Murray (sorry, Sir David Murray) has surveyed the sheer horror of Rangers season so far and decided to back Barry Ferguson rather than his manager.
Le Guen has caused more than his fair share of controversy this season with his handling of Kris Boyd and Allan McGregor in particular and his frankly shameful dealings in the transfer market so when push came to shove there was only one person heading out the door and it wasn’t the lifelong Rangers fan who has sweated blue blood for the cause this season again as everything threatens to cave in around him.
Yet another manager has found that they aren’t always top of the food chain at a top football club especially when results are so poor under their leadership and it will be of little surprise to most Rangers fans to see Le Guen leave this evening.
The new million dollar question is of course “Who Replaces Paul Le Guen?” and will they have any more luck in turning around Rangers’ form?
I hear Graeme Souness is still out a job….
About the author Alan Hylands
Alan is both a former SOTG editor and former World Soccer editor at the New York Times Company. Football-wise, he wishes he was a younger lovechild of Glenn Hoddle and Diego Maradona (not the short, fat, cokehead, religious nut bit obviously...)
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Unfortunatly Alan, the several million pound question is “how much has this cost the club”? PLG was on a 3 year contract and must have agreed a massive pay off. So now, even less for players that are badly needed.
Plus we’re stuck with Le Guen’s (and Eck’s) dross.
Plus of course, the message (righly or wrongly) has been sent that Barry Ferguson is more important to Rangers than his gaffer is. So Bazza is now de facto manager of Rangers.
“Now lads, I think we should play 4-3-3…what’s that Barry? Oh right, 4-4-2 it is then…”
What manager of any worth is going to come under these circumstances? Billy Davis? Graeme Souness? Do me a favour. We’ll be lucky to get Berti Vogts.
Incredible. I didn’t thinks things could become more ridiculous at Ibrox, but we have now surpassed even Hearts.
I’m totally stunned by this.
A reinforcement of the modern day stereotype that the manager is despensable whereas the players are virtual princes within their own realms. This is a sad day not just for Rangers but for football in general.
Clubs cannot be successful if the manager is not free to manage the club.
Surely a change had to come though Fraser? This week’s public spat was always going to end in tears and while I don’t follow Rangers on a day to day basis like yourself (maybe I’m just used to a revolving managerial door at White Hart Lane!) it came as no surprise to me to hear that PLG had gone.
Should Murray now sell Ferguson anyway to show any prospective new manager that he’s willing to take the tough measures to put things right or would that be a case of cutting off his nose to spite his face?
I agree with Kieran to be honest Alan.
Who knows what’s really gone on here?
Not us certainly, but a manager leaving a club after a spat with a senior player send out and awful message in any circumstances.
I doubt Ferguson will be sold but to be honest, anything can happen now and I won’t be surprised. If aliens from the planet Tharrrg had taken over the club and signed a seven tentacled centre half, I’d be less shocked than I am right now.
Billy Davies looks to be the early front runner for it. Would you be impressed by that Fraser?
I would. Even as a Forest fan, I can say I have a great admiration of Billy Davies for what he’s done at Derby. Anyone who can get the sheep into an automatic promotion spot must have something about them…the sooner he leaves the better!!
He did well at Preston though before that. Not sure of his career pre-Preston but surely Rangers can’t go far wrong by hiring him.
come on BEARS lets look at the bigger picture here,Barry was being used as a scapegoat for PLG’s crap record in the SPL.He made some horrendous signings plus the fact that he underestimated scottish football to the extent that he thought he could win it easy.He inherited Alex Mcleish’s side and bought some crap on the way. He was looking for someone to blame so that he could go back to europe with his reputation intact.PLG should have kept the situation in house which any good manager with a bit of man management would have done,but let’s not kid ourselves here he did not have a lot of money to play with,which beggars the question why he came to us in the first place.This will cost the club a fortune,but what we need to do now is to go out and buy Scott Brown and Kevin thompson and a central defender.Oh and a new manager my bet is on Walter Smith(short term)long term Billy Davies The board must now start backin the manager with some decent funds and hopefully we will get back to where we belong top in Scotland and eventually in Eurpoe.Keep believen PEOPLE.
I can’t see the Ibrox faithful getting excited about him, former Bear though he is. The talk up here at the moment is Ally McCoist is coming back, possibly alongside Walter Smith.
But who knows? Souness and McLeish are without clubs, George Graham’s name gets bandied about every now and again, though usually by me. Willie Miller might like another crack at management. Terry Butcher’s not been ran out of Sydney on a rail as yet, but still might fancy it. Stuart McCall? Kevin Keegan lives up here now, he might enjoy the pressure. What’s Terry Hurlock up to?
F*ck me Tom, don’t mention Keegan eh? Davis? Meh, I suppose we should be grateful for anyone. He has a decent record at Championship level, but then so does Mick McCarthy.
I notice Andy Webster is about to sign from Wigan on loan. That’s certainly a step in the right direction at least.
Sorry if these aren’t great responses – I’m still as stunned as I’ve ever been.
BTW Kieran, Davis’ pre Preston career was a not very impressive spell at Motherwell. He’s not rated up here, but I’d imagine that’s because we don’t see much of the Championship.
Baz?s big bro Derek has a record as a gaffer, having been in charge at Clydebank when we went belly up. I imagine he could handle Barry?s greeting better than Le Guen.
Oh, oh Graham Roberts! We know he has a unique way of raising funds.
The fans are demanding answers and tipping Walter to take over. As a Scotland fan I hope he doesn?t leave the national post.
http://www.stv.tv/content/sport/sportnews/display.html?id=opencms:/sport/sportnews/Rangers_fans_want_answers_040107
Ya piss taking bam Tom
This is a appalling turn of events and one which has now seen us return to the “team that drinks together, wins together” attitude of, actually, ‘not doing very well at all in Europe’.