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Warburton Should Beware. These Le Guen Stories Are A Noose Around His Neck.

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Isn’t it funny how a sudden rash of Paul Le Guen reminiscences have found their way into the press in the last week?

The 10th anniversary of his sacking from Ibrox was yesterday, but you’d be mad to think those stories are only about that.

If I were Warburton I would not be laughing; those stories have but one purpose.

They’re a message about what other Ibrox boards have put up with before they’ve sacked managers.

Le Guen arrived in Scotland with a big name; he didn’t leave that way. His career never really recovered from what happened to him here.

Warburton didn’t come here with a big rep. He certainly won’t leave as one on the available evidence. But he’s lasted longer than I thought he might. I didn’t give him till Christmas earlier in the year. If he made it as far as the game against us at Ibrox I believed it would be his Waterloo.

It still might be; the next set of games aren’t for over a week and there’s still time for King and his board to decide to end this thing relatively painlessly.

But of course, even that scenario takes wishful thinking to new heights. There is no painless finish to this, not anymore. Warburton knows there’ll be no money for signings this month, far less the kind of money Celtic has just spent on a kid. He knows the board hasn’t got the cash he needs and he probably now suspects they wouldn’t trust him with it if they had. The humiliation he’s already had to endure in the transfer market, scrambling around in the bargain bin, will be heightened in the coming weeks as we move further ahead than ever.

The articles on Le Guen mention his poor results, the gap between his team and Celtic, his signings and his tactics and approach to games. Sound familiar? Of course it does. The media is playing “contrast and compare”. You can almost hear the gears grinding. If they haven’t been briefed then they’re all writing astonishingly similar stuff.

This isn’t the first time the media has dropped hints about thinking inside Ibrox.

There was a period a couple of months ago – before their “recovery run” saved his job for a while – when Ronny Deila’s name was being invoked to stalk him. That certainly concerned him, but the rash of Le Guen stories will concern him more and for good reason.

No-one is suggesting he’s doing an Ally; McCoist always had a Praetorian Guard amongst the fans and the media, because he gave Rangers a period of service on the pitch which was almost beyond reproach. He had a measure of goodwill which this guy doesn’t have and never will no matter how many dumb “magic hats” the fans put on. He should know, by now, that this an insular club and a club like that there’s no mercy for anyone who’s not part of the “culture”.

He really isn’t, no matter how hard he’s tried to be.

Le Guen was the last boss who didn’t “understand the club” and he didn’t get a full season before they shipping him out and anointed Barry Ferguson as the man who really ran the show. It was shabby and shocking but ruthless. And it worked too, because they brought in Smith and he turned things around, spending money they didn’t have.

Of course, that’s what propelled them towards the grave, but still …

The reason for these reports is to remind the fans that they once followed a club that was serious about its business and sacked people when they weren’t up to snuff.

Sevco is a different club, but it tries so hard to be Rangers that Warburton ought to hire a food taster and a couple of body doubles.

Because they are coming for him, for sure.

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