14 years since Le Guen arrived

He was the next Messiah and was going to win us everything after succeeding with Rennes and Lyon. Instead, all we got was shite results, players reprimanded for eating monster munch and the new additions looking out of their depth.

I'm glad it happened though, cause we got Walter back and Sasa Papac!
 
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What a complete let down that was!

He arrived with a genuinely brilliant reputation from France but his time with us was a complete and utter disaster.

His career since has also shown that he simply landed on his feet first time round with Lyon. A bang average manager who simply couldn’t cope.
 
Around this time, we had been following his exploits in le Marathon des Sables and predicting how we were qoing to be the fittest team on the planet. We, as much as PLG it seems, totally misjudged the Scottish psyche.

FF had recently moved board as well so loads of new French usernames on the go. How many are still in use?

In another months or so time, he would be making another misjudgment in believing he could walk safely amongst the filth fans (away to Hearts) on a recce mission. How wrong he was - the mild-mannered Frenchman being subject to disgusting verbal and physical (rabid spit) abuse from the mouths of denier-enablers.
 
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It was a monumental disaster of an appointment.

You just knew by late September/early October that season it was never going to work out.

To think the hype and atmosphere around PLG and the speculation of the targets we allegedly trying to sign but in reality it was few million on absolute duds.

Getting Walter Smith back was a masterstroke imo.
 
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I really thought this would move us up to the next level. Especially in Europe. How wrong I was.
 
I went all in on Le Guen. Genuinely thought he was next level fantasy stuff.

Another fraud who came unprepared.

I remember going to Motherwell for the first game of the season and thinking, "Well, they are just finding their feet. It'll get better.". History says otherwise.
 
Coplandbear said:
It was a monumental disaster of an appointment.

You just knew by late September/early October that season it was never going to work out.

To think the hype and atmosphere around PLG and the speculation of the targets we allegedly trying to sign but in reality it was few million on absolute duds.

Getting Walter Smith back was a masterstroke imo.
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It was the signings that started the alarm bells ringing. Everything just seemed very 'List C' as we couldn't, or he wasn't allowed, to go for the players he actually wanted, or was promised.

Papac excluded of course.
 
I remember how much people on here wanted Le Guen, he was the Warburton of his day.

At least Cathro went to Hearts to flop.
 
Weirdly was digging out some old books in the loft last week and found (tin hat on) Britney's book about him. Current toilet reading. Very strange saga all round...
 
charlie_snowball said:
I went all in on Le Guen. Genuinely thought he was next level fantasy stuff.

Another fraud who came unprepared.

I remember going to Motherwell for the first game of the season and thinking, "Well, they are just finding their feet. It'll get better.". History says otherwise.
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My recollection was that we were played brillianty that day against Motherwell, only winning narrowly because we passed up a lot of chances. I remember being pretty excited coming away from it - little did I know the depths we would go on to plumb.

Those league numbers. P23, W11, D6, L6. Absolutely howling, and knocked out of the league cup by a lower division side at Ibrox.
 
Was at his first pre season games here in South Africa. Was at the airport to welcome them, greeted and shook Barrie's hand and wondered why he seemed a bit narked, only to find out about the Fernando incident the next day.
 
the way the fans were at the front door was a disgrace that day, was it mclelland or bain (maybe someone else?) basically told us to away and pulled the shutter down after bringing him to the front door for a millisecond surrounded by press.
 
He missed judge the size of the job
The players already at the club were not ready physically or mentally for a new style/training he’d want
Murray did not back home with resources required

All round it just wasn’t what we needed at the time.
 
Teddyjohn said:
I remember we were linked with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Johan Elmander that summer. We ended up with Sionko and N'Diaye.
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Sionko should have been a successful signing. No idea why it never worked out. We got rid of him for £40k then he went to the World Cup and started in a right good Czech side!
 
Where has the time went scary doesn't cover it, remember alot of posters changing their names to gallic names and phrases.
 
What a false dawn that was. After the first game at Fir Park I thought we were really going to go on to great things, the rest of his tenure was torturous.
 
Cant believe that's been 14 years.

Remember there was a real buzz that he was going to take us to the next level domestically and in Europe. Ironically in a round about way his appointment did end up leading us to a European final. If it hadn't been such a disaster I dont think Walter would have ended up back.
 
He didn't adapt quickly enough (non-contact training in Scottish Football was a ridiculous idea) but I think there's an element of others being resistant to the changes he wanted to bring in.
 
charlie_snowball said:
I went all in on Le Guen. Genuinely thought he was next level fantasy stuff.

Another fraud who came unprepared.

I remember going to Motherwell for the first game of the season and thinking, "Well, they are just finding their feet. It'll get better.". History says otherwise.
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We did okay in that game, but I get your point.
 
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I never undrstood his appointment and still don't; the budget didn't seem tailored to it. I also got the impression he quickly didn't want to be here, although I might be wrong about that. I liked him though, as in he came across as someone with integrity.
 
I suspect he was doomed to fail, but I also strongly suspect he was deceived on his transfer budget by Murray.

We went from trying to sign Sidney Govou, Johan Elmander and Steve Mandanda to instead signing Sionko and Letizi on frees and Sebo.

Keep in mind that Celtic also signed Venegoor of Hessalink for nearly £4m that summer - more than we spent on virtually an entire new team.
 
Well me and my Dad had high hopes for him.

That first 15 minutes in the opening against Motherwell I thought this was Advocatt style returning.

After finishing 3rd the season before it couldnt have got much worse. How I was wrong.

Done okay in Europe for us.

Sebo tho, what a huge mistake that was. 2 goals against Hibs and Aberdeen were not acceptable.
 
For a good few years afterwards on this board you could guarantee that any thread with PLG in the title would inevitably descend into a slagging match between those in entrenched positions on him either being hopeless or let down/misunderstood. Hasn't happened on this one, which I would suggest means history hasn't been kind to him i.e he has done nothing of note in his career since.
 
I remember his first home league game against Dundee Utd. The place was buzzing - we drew 2-2 (after being down 2-0 I think!) but even then I can remember thinking that it would come good. Shame it never worked out but at least we got Walter back.
 
He should have been our version of Rodgers. He ended up being out version of Mowbray.
I'll admit I was freaking buzzing when Le Guen signed. I,possibly like a few others, got sucked in with the prestige of doing so well with Lyon (a team who soundly beat Real Madrid. A team we scudded away, a year and a bit after he signed). He was winning everything before a ball was kicked. A shame and a blessing how it all panned out.
 
Time has shown him to be what he was here, not very good.

Someone posted it on twitter recently and it's my main recollection of his time here: he called Barry Ferguson over to give him instructions and Barry had a look on his face of pure resignation, knew he was out of his depth.
 
Not only having PLG sign we had our club end of season bash and everyone was up for PLG coming. That night we had Hateley, Roberts & Goram as our guests of honour. Myself and another poster (icrfc) are having a drink with one of the above and he say's 'You are going to see players at Ibrox like you have never seen before' I thought he was meaning maybe Zidane or some of that cable but ended up with Sebo so technically he was correct.
 
Every Rangers man I knew was delighted when Le Guen was appointed. He had an outstanding career up to that point and the fans had lost faith in McLeish. What is a mystery is his initial signings which were underwhelming to say the least. It's obvious with hindsight that Murray didn't give him any kind of reasonable budget to compete with the mentally challengeds. This could have been the start of his downfall and by November everybody could see he didn't want to be here.
 
Still remember watching the Motherwell game in what was then called The Red Lizard in Merchant City. Had a great day out with my mate after it, we were both absolutely buzzing with excitement.
 
stonewall Jackson said:
Every Rangers man I knew was delighted when Le Guen was appointed. He had an outstanding career up to that point and the fans had lost faith in McLeish. What is a mystery is his initial signings which were underwhelming to say the least. It's obvious with hindsight that Murray didn't give him any kind of reasonable budget to compete with the mentally challengeds. This could have been the start of his downfall and by November everybody could see he didn't want to be here.
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There was also the story which was true at the time that he was generally happy with the squad he inherited.

Massive mistake regardless of his budget.
 
Some strange signings. 3 players from Austria Vienna for a start.

Clement, Letizi and Sionko on paper were good signings but only Clement really worked out and even then we had to sell him to get Thomson in.

I assumed that he would have kept on Fanfan and turned Rodriguez back into the player that played in a Champions League final. That didn’t happen, although after we sold him to Marseille he got a French call up!

Svensson wouldn’t have looked out of place next to Faure and Cribari. N’Daiye never kicked a ball ever again despite being only 26 when he left us and had played in a World Cup for Senegal.

He didn’t get Scottish football at all, but I think the professionalism of some of our home grown players did leave a lot to be desired.
 
Still find it bizarre how Murray pulled out all the stops to get him at Ibrox then proceeded to give him f*ck all to spend. It's like buying a Ferrari and then putting a Ford Taurus engine inside it. At least on the face of it. I suspect Le Guen had more or less chucked football after his spell at Lyon.
 
Drumchapel-Bear said:
One of the biggest let downs in our history. He was genuinely the best young coach in Europe at the time.

His career after Lyon showed he was a flash in the pan and just showed how good Lyon's structure was at the time.
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At Lyon the players were signed for him and to suit his style of play/system. With us he had to choose players and couldn't spot quality.

I think it showed early doors PLG had no eye for a player.
 
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