The clamour for ?real Rangers men? like Ally McCoist and Walter Smith to take over the reigns at Ibrox got louder following an utterly dismal display against Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup this weekend.

To lose 3 goals in 46 minutes to a team who hadn?t scored in 9 games and had won just one of their last fifteen tells the whole sorry story for Rangers.

Rangers man though he is, Ian Durrant couldn?t field a side capable of beating the weakest side in the SPL. Not because there wasn?t enough commitment in the dressing room, not because of fancy, foreign formations the players couldn?t understand. We lost for a simple reason. The vast majority of the Rangers first team squad is shit, not worthy of the shirt.
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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.
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A nice uneventful festive period at Ibrox then eh?

It would appear that our manager has cleverly managed to mask our persistently erratic form by having the barney to end all barneys with Rangers skipper Barry Ferguson.

Say what you want about his decision to drop the fans favourite, but no-one?s talking about the five points dropped to Inverness CT and St Mirren in recent matches anymore are they?

On the face of it, it?s an awful decision. With the team lurching from passable to pathetic, what do you do? Drop your best player and the one guy who always looks as if he cares? Risky to say the least.

It?s easy to see both sides of this argument.

Barry obviously feels that Paul le Guen is the wrong man for the Rangers job. He hates to see the club he loves failing so miserably and he has been more than forthcoming in his views.

Le Guen on the other hand, cannot have an agent provocateur as club captain and had to make an example of a guy who was, according to him at least, badmouthing him and defying his orders.

So who?s right here? Unless anarchy is to prevail, there can be only one answer.

There can only be one boss, and it should be the guy appointed by the chairman, not the club captain - however much he loves the club.

Powerful player clich?s have undermined Rangers in the past and it was obvious the same thing was happening again.

Look, I absolutely adore Barry Ferguson. I think he?s a brilliant player and a Rangers great. But if it?s true that he?s responsible for turning a faction of players against his manager and that he has wilfully defied tactical instructions in matches, he has to go.

That is unacceptable of any player, particularly the club captain, who should be helping his manager batten down the hatches instead of trying to get him fired.

Ferguson is highly unlikely to be offered a way back but if he wants to save his Rangers career, he should button his lip and get down to proving in training why he?s so lauded by the fans.

For Le Guen?s part, he has to think about why he keeps falling out with the players. This is the third first team player he?s had a public row with this season, and that in itself is not good enough.

He also has to look at the big picture, which has been obscured by this latest fiasco.

Several quality players are required to move this Rangers team on from utter mediocrity.

Dropping Barry Ferguson is obviously a pivotal point in Paul le Guen?s Rangers career.

But it is what he does to improve matters on the park in the wake of this decision that will decide his future.

Fans calling for the Le Guen?s head because he has dropped a popular player are missing the point.

If team performance improves dramatically in the second half of the season, all will be forgiven; if it doesn?t his adversary may well out-last him at the club.

Reports this morning suggest that Rangers winger Chris Burke has ?done a Shaun Maloney? and cancelled negotiations on a new contract, preferring to see what is on offer from other clubs in the January window.

It?s a massive gamble for a boy who has obvious talent but who has spent most of his three years in the Rangers first team squad on the treatment table.

Football now exists within a context wherein most of the pundits we see in the media are agents, or at least have an agency stake, so it?s not surprising when you hear some has-been trot out tripe like: ?The boy has to look after himself; football careers are short, you?d do the same?? etc.
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The cracked crest on the back of today?s Scottish Sun confirms it ? Rangers are officially in crisis.

Having fallen 15 points behind Celtic at the top of the SPL and following our 0-2 loss to St Johnstone in the League Cup, probably the worst defeat in our 134 year history, Rangers manager Paul Le Guen is in serious danger of becoming a managerial casualty by Christmas, this at a club who just don?t ever sack managers.
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Livorno 2 Rangers 3

Last night?s terrific win for Rangers over Serie A?s Livorno proved a timely boost for fans more used to disappoint so far this season.

It was as good a performance as it was a surprising one. Never mind one hand, you can count on one finger the amount of times a Scottish side has dominated Italian opposition like that on their own ground. Last night. That was it.
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The official word seems to be in from Rangers fans if fans forums are be believed. Paul Le Guen is rubbish and David Murray is a dick.

Well, no-one?s saying there isn?t room for criticism. We have made our worst start to a league campaign for 23 years after all.
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Rangers fans were in decent spirits after the recent home win against Aberdeen, not least because we finally won a game we looked like dropping points in.

But if the Rangers board have had a habit of annoying the fans with misleading or overly-optimistic statements lately our new manager is swiftly replacing them in terms his ability to induce incredulity among the Ibrox faithful.

Not satisfied with trying find any excuse to drop goal machine centre forward Kris Boyd, PLG has, for the first time, genuinely infuriated the fans with his decision to drop outstanding young Scottish keeper Alan McGregor in favour of 30 plus blunder merchant and PLG signing Lionel Letizi.
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Not many Rangers fans are predicting victory over Celtic in the season?s first old firm game this coming Saturday.

Within the space of a week, a slightly disappointing start to the season has tuned into a potentially disastrous one, with awful performances in matches against Molde of Norway in the UEFA Cup and then away to Hibernian on Sunday.

Yet again, an early season month of ?must wins? for Rangers have started with a couple of adverse results, while our city rivals appear to be efficiently if unspectacularly plodding along nicely.

It was the abject manner of our 2-1 defeat on Sunday which has caused most consternation among the fans.

Rangers were totally dominated throughout by a Hibernian team vibrant with youth, guile and experience. The Ibrox side failed to register a single shot at goal until they scored, over an hour into the game.
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There?s quite a funny Photoshop gag doing the rounds just now, featuring Rangers skipper Barry Ferguson tucked under his RFC duvet having nightmares about his impending clashes with new Celtic signing Thomas Gravesen.

Despite the fact that the 63 times capped Danish international hasn?t kicked a ball in anger for the Parkhead side thus far, many of their fans have convinced themselves that he is the hard but creative catalyst who will power Celtic to the title ? in short, a perfect replacement for the departed Stilian Petrov.

There can be no doubt that Gravesen is a quality player. The beating heart of Everton?s best season in recent years, the Dane made a surprise move to Real Madrid in January 2005, bought in the last flailing days of Wanderley Luxemburgo?s disastrous tenure at the Bernabeu.
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