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I Shouldn't Have Axed You Barry


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Andy Devlin

PAUL LE GUEN has admitted that stripping Barry Ferguson of the Rangers captaincy was a MISTAKE.

French flop le Guen has spoken for the first time about his rocky relationship with the Ibrox icon.

The pair clashed repeatedly during le Guen's disastrous reign, with the Frenchman's patience finally snapping on New Year's Day 2007.

Before Gers' encounter at Motherwell, le Guen took the armband off Ferguson and sent the midfielder off home.

It was his final act as Gers manager as days later the axe fell, ending his shambolic six-month stint in charge.

Now, almost four years after he first swept into Scotland, the former Lyon coach has told of his regret.

Asked if stripping Ferguson of the armband was the right thing to do, le Guen confessed: "No, no, it was not right.

"I say, it was an impasse.When I took this decision I knew it would be difficult for me."

Le Guen's capture was seen as a massive coup for Rangers.

The Frenchman - who is heading to the World Cup as coach of Cameroon - had enjoyed remarkable success at Lyon and was tipped to take Rangers to the next level in Europe.

But that dream became a nightmare as one dud signing was followed by another.

By Christmas Gers were dead and buried in the title race and the pain had become just too much for Ferguson too bear.

There were several exchanges between coach and captain before le Guen finally took action as 2006 drew to a dramatic close.

Le Guen admitted: "He was my best player, but it was difficult for me to get the same relationship because of some factors.

"We are so different, but he was my best player.

"I was fed up with some behaviour, he knew he was the natural captain of Rangers, I knew that.

"But at that moment I was fed up perhaps."

Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/2983025/I-shouldnt-have-axed-you-Barry.html#ixzz0obrLCKlc

Interesting,a lot of Bears believe he was right to do it.

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"I say, it was an impasse.When I took this decision I knew it would be difficult for me."

"But at that moment I was fed up perhaps."

Sounds to me like he did it to get the chop

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"I was fed up with some behaviour, he knew he was the natural captain of Rangers, I knew that.

"But at that moment I was fed up perhaps."

Paul had no bottle. Simple.

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Le Guen would have been a success if he had signed a good centre half, he folded during the revolt from some players who couldn't be arsed training twice a day with no drink at all.

I remember the first 30 mins in his first game v Motherwell we fucking destroyed them with wingers and short passing. It could have been amazing.

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Le Guen would have been a success if he had signed a good centre half, he folded during the revolt from some players who couldn't be arsed training twice a day with no drink at all.

I remember the first 30 mins in his first game v Motherwell we fucking destroyed them with wingers and short passing. It could have been amazing.

Annoying that. Cant get the booze culture away from the club. 21st century, football has changed, Scottish players cant be piss heads anymore, he realised that.

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I always thought that his success at Lyon was on the coat tails of Jacques Santini to a fair extent and it wasn't really any surprise that it ended in tears for him at Ibrox.

He is maybe a very successful coach in the right environment but the SPL was a big difference to what he thought it would be, even although I think he was correct in dealing with Ferguson, for when a player starts ruling over a manager, it's time for the player to go.

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A great opportunity for the club which was doomed to failure from the start. This was another one of those masterstrokes which Murray played every so often. Lack of finance, mistakes from PLG in planning, a childish group of players loath to change and an impatient support who demanded instant success would ensure that it was never given the time required.

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Le Guen would have been a success if he had signed a good centre half, he folded during the revolt from some players who couldn't be arsed training twice a day with no drink at all.

I remember the first 30 mins in his first game v Motherwell we fucking destroyed them with wingers and short passing. It could have been amazing.

This was PLG's big mistake.

He tried to build a new team with a new formation, but he shouldve done so with a solid Scottish/British defence, who would basiclly set the foundation for the rest of the team to build on.

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Good to see him admit his mistake, will the people who backed him admit there's....probably not.

Never have i been more dissapointed in anyone connected to Rangers than i was in le guen, i truly thought we had managed to capture a world class manager. Arrogance, a lack of preperation and awful players were his downfall.

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Good to see him admit his mistake, will the people who backed him admit there's....probably not.

Never have i been more dissapointed in anyone connected to Rangers than i was in le guen, i truly thought we had managed to capture a world class manager. Arrogance, a lack of preperation and awful players were his downfall.

He made some monumental mistakes, but wasn't alone in that respect. Ferguson's subsequent behaviour, running to McGuire and King, followed by his antics with the National team, showed his true colours. There are others who should look back on that time with shame.

What most people do forget is the position we were starting from.

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Good to see him admit his mistake, will the people who backed him admit there's....probably not.

Never have i been more dissapointed in anyone connected to Rangers than i was in le guen, i truly thought we had managed to capture a world class manager. Arrogance, a lack of preperation and awful players were his downfall.

He made some monumental mistakes, but wasn't alone in that respect. Ferguson's subsequent behaviour, running to McGuire and King, followed by his antics with the National team, showed his true colours. There are others who should look back on that time with shame.

What most people do forget is the position we were starting from.

One le guen amazingly made far worse......

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Good to see him admit his mistake, will the people who backed him admit there's....probably not.

Never have i been more dissapointed in anyone connected to Rangers than i was in le guen, i truly thought we had managed to capture a world class manager. Arrogance, a lack of preperation and awful players were his downfall.

He made some monumental mistakes, but wasn't alone in that respect. Ferguson's subsequent behaviour, running to McGuire and King, followed by his antics with the National team, showed his true colours. There are others who should look back on that time with shame.

What most people do forget is the position we were starting from.

One le guen amazingly made far worse......

The league table would say otherwise and the European results were very good.

In saying that, it was still a hugely disappointing time, for many different reasons.

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No Paul, what you done was never done your homework. Scouted what the SPL was. You brought players who just couldn't cope with what was needed.

What he tried to do was get rid of the culture in Scottish football that players can do what they want in the weekend, eat crap food, drink all night long,...

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