Paul Le Guen’s disastrous spell at Ibrox was epitomised by his decision to strip Barry Ferguson of the Rangers captaincy.
Former Rangers midfielder Gavin Rae admits he felt like a ‘lamb to the slaughter’ when infamous manager Paul Le Guen made him captain following a row with Barry Ferguson, the Daily Record reports.
Its ten years this month since the Frenchman’s tumultuous tenure at Ibrox was brought to an end after just 31 games in charge, making him the shortest serving manager in the club’s history.
And while poor results were obviously a major factor in Le Guen’s swift sacking, the relationship with his squad laid the foundations for an eight-month stay that looked doomed from the very beginning.
And the bad feeling reached a head when, in January 2007, club captain and fans favourite Ferguson was stripped of the armband following dressing room row with the former Lyon boss, out-of-favour Rae surprisingly assuming the role in his place.
And the now-39-year-old admits that he did not appreciate Le Guen placing him at the centre of the conflict.
“It got a bit acrimonious at the end when [Le Guen] stripped Barry of the captaincy and dropped him and I ended up caught in the middle. I was a lamb to the slaughter basically,” Rae told the Daily Record.
“We had got on well – although I get on with most people – and I think [Le Guen] respected the way I dedicated myself to my profession.
“But I wasn’t playing that much so to make me captain was strange. And then when he did leave he didn’t speak to me and that was the biggest disappointment.”
Le Guen left a matter of days after the incident with his short-lived stay in Glasgow having gone down in legend as one of the strangest and most disappointing periods in Rangers’ history.
The 52-year-old is currently without a job after a poor start to 2018 World Cup Qualifying as manager of Oman.
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