David Murray

[Laudbertz 0]

New Rangers manager Paul Le Guen met the Scottish media for the first time and declared his intentions to immediately wrest the Bank of Scotland Premier League title back from rivals Celtic.

 

The Frenchman is the 12th man to occupy the Ibrox hot seat and follows in the footsteps of Alex McLeish, who left the club at the end of last season.

 

Le Guen arrived in Scotland on Monday with an impressive record having led Lyon to three consecutive titles before taking a year-long sabbatical from football.

 

And before stepping out to an enthusiastic reception from excited Rangers fans who had assembled outside the front door of Ibrox, Le Guen served notice on Hoops boss Gordon Strachan that he intends to relieve the Parkhead men of their title next season.

 

He said: "I hope that I'm here for at least three years and first of all I want to win the title in the first year, that is my first goal.

 

"I know that it will be difficult but we have this objective.

 

"I know Scottish football, I have played against Celtic many times and I watched some games last season.

 

"But football is football. We will try to play well but above all we will try to win.

 

"Rangers made me feel welcome and it was most important to feel that my staff and I would be working in good conditions.

 

"People in France are surprised (that he became Rangers manager) but never mind.

 

"I am very satisfied and that is the most important thing for me."

 

Rangers chairman David Murray reiterated Le Guen's hopes of bringing success back to the Ibrox club.

 

However, Murray admitted his new boss would not have the funds that previous managers enjoyed.

 

He said: "We welcome Paul to Rangers and we're delighted to have him for what we hope is a very exciting, new winning era at Rangers.

 

"We thank Alex McLeish for the bringing success in previous years and managing the club during a difficult time.

 

"But we feel that we have been very fortunate in securing one of the most exciting, promising and successful managers in Europe in Paul Le Guen.

 

"We have a common goal, we must win the title back. The expectations at Rangers are very high and we're not used to not winning trophies.

 

"But we haven't given Paul tens of millions of pounds like previous managers, he was aware of the budget when we talked.

 

"And I can honestly say that when it came to talking money and wages in our negotiations, it took 10 minutes.

 

"I said to him that I would like to give him more money but we are running the club financially and fiscally different from previous years.

 

"It was never about how much we were spending on players, it was about a good understanding, a mutual respect and that is the foundation of any future relationship.

 

"Several million pounds will be made available but nobody at Rangers ever said there would be �£10million or �£20million pounds.

 

"If players go or are sold, the money will be made available but that was agreed at the offset.

 

"Whether it's Rangers, Celtic or Hearts, nobody has a bottomless pit of money now, we are in a different era."

 

The Rangers players went through double training sessions on their first day back and the Frenchman hinted that his charges can now expect a tougher regime at Ibrox.

 

He said: "We will work hard but it's normal to have discipline and work hard.

 

"I like good behaviour and good attitude but I don't like a lack of respect."

 

 

I must have been listening to a different interview a few months ago cause you, Mr Murray, said there would be millions to spend.

This all goes back to, as Cammy has mentioned over the years, the days with Gio, Albertz, Tugay etc left the club and we were told they would be replaced by the same calibre of player(s).

Yet to see them....

[buba3d 0]

After reading that, i wished to god now that rangers sold boyd for the 6 million tag.

 

F**k you david, you've f**ked us over to many times and now it's time you just piss off.

 

Very angry bear

[fraser54 0]

why buba boyd is class

[calscot 0]

Yes it does calscot but if the product on the pitch is inferior then the club run the risk of more than negating the interest saved by not having CL football, not selling as many season tickets.

 

It is a balancing act, but one simply cannot be preferred over another. It is a well-known business fact that debt gearing (debt vs equity) shouldn't be zero as you don't get the best use of funds. In other words, it is widely accepted that it is GOOD to carry some level of debt.

 

I would love Rangers to be debt free and cash-rich - as a club they aren't so the debt has to be reduced but not at the exclusion of the product they are in the business of providing.

 

I agree with you but what level of debt gearing ratio is good for a football club? We must be at about 20% which sounds pretty high. Perhaps 10% is more realistic.

 

To make use of debt you have to make sure the earning returns on your spending are greater than the interest you are paying. In football the returns are an unknown quantity as spending does not always bring success - something we have learned the hard way.

 

A year ago, our interest was 10% of our turnover and that was crippling us.

 

I think there must be a reasonable amount of cash available as PLG refers to "millions", it's just not in the tens of millions like we expected or hoped for and I would guess it is around five or six million. However I think the manager will get around five million every year plus profits on player sales - something Murray is probably banking on.

 

Le Guen will know his budget and must be happy enough with it or he wouldn't have come. I think he would only come if he could trust Murray and so he obviously does. Murray may bullshit us, but he's probably up front with Le Guen. He know's he can't afford to blow it with such a great catch of a manager.

 

They are probably playing it down to dampen our high spending expectations, which have been wildly discussed at around the 18M mark, and also to help in hard nosed negotiations which seem to be our trademark these days.

 

However I'm trusting Le guen to make the most of the money available, he really does come across as having his head screwed on straight.

[Guest stano]

Interesting how Murray waits till all the season ticket renewals are in before mentioning this

 

Also i thought the whole point of the JJB deal was to get PLG a transfer warchest in his 1st season

[ascender 352]

I'm still really excited about the future under PLG, double training sessions are as good a start as anywhere! I'm also not bothered if he has limited funds to play with as I'm sure he'll spend wisely.

 

But, I am concerned about the apparent lack of major money to spend. Whether he needs it or not, I'd not want us to miss out on any players for the sake of £500,000 or so. Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick, but I thought that when pressure was mounting on DM and he came out with all his news, that a lot of the work was being done to give PLG a decent war-chest to spend on actually spending money on fees for players. Like Clement and Elmander for example. The combined fee for those pair would appear to be £3.5M, which I don't think is a lot of money when you consider their age, potential and what they've achieved so far.

[buba3d 0]

According to scotland today

 

Big money transferes are gone

le guen will get JC

PLG has 7 millions to spend

Don't show respect you're out the door

PLG wanted to keep lovenkrands (ok the this part ain't true)

[Guest amo4]

As usual Mr Murray is up to his tricks, wherever the money has gone, it certainly did not pay for my redundancy.....his back pocket me thinks

[RoyRG 0]

PLG will get the money 1 way he wouldnt come here with a pittance to spend

[craig 5,199]

I agree with you but what level of debt gearing ratio is good for a football club? We must be at about 20% which sounds pretty high. Perhaps 10% is more realistic.

20% actually isn't high in regular business, it is quite low. However, personally I would like it eradicated completely but would say that your 10% would be appropriate - and if the figure of 25 mill is representative of 20% then 10% would be 12.5 million. So from the JJB deal alone there should be 5.5 mill left and this doesn't include the CL money. So there should be AT LEAST 7 mill to spend if Gers were to get to a point of 10% gearing. My true point to your statement about clearing down debt was simply that if DM has used the JJB money and CL profits to eliminate the debt then I think it is an unwise decision because you still need to provide a product on the pitch. Money doesn't guarantee success so it is a balancing act but even DM must realise that investment is needed in the squad.

 

To make use of debt you have to make sure the earning returns on your spending are greater than the interest you are paying. In football the returns are an unknown quantity as spending does not always bring success - something we have learned the hard way.

Agreed Calscot that spending doesn't bring success. But as I said above it should be a balancing act - PLG so far has looked like a manager that has a keen eye for potential (look at the number of youngsters he has brought in and the players he nurtured at Lyon) and this is a major coup for DM and may even be a financial windfall for Gers (unearthing a gem, seeing him perform very well for 2 or 3 years and then sell-on for handsome profit) but I also would like to see PLG here for the long-term and I think that will require some decent (not exorbitant) money to spend.

 

 

A year ago, our interest was 10% of our turnover and that was crippling us.

No doubt. That was then though, it isn't currently the figure so it shouldn't be crippling us - we should still be looking to reduce the debt wherever possible but not ALWAYS at the expense od the squad. Sometimes it makes sense to do so, but not consistently. Hopefully PLG will get the money that AM was promised in January but didn't get.....

 

 

I think there must be a reasonable amount of cash available as PLG refers to "millions", it's just not in the tens of millions like we expected or hoped for and I would guess it is around five or six million. However I think the manager will get around five million every year plus profits on player sales - something Murray is probably banking on.

. From the quotes it looks like it will be anything up to 9.99 million - "several but not tens of millions" - I would be happy if PLG gets 7 mill - but that makes me wonder why we don't go the extra 300k for Clement ??? Regards player profits I agree, I think it was one of the things Murray was looking for in a new manager, someone that can unearth some gems as youngsters, get a few good seasons from them and then sell them on at sizeable profit.

 

 

Le Guen will know his budget and must be happy enough with it or he wouldn't have come. I think he would only come if he could trust Murray and so he obviously does. Murray may bullshit us, but he's probably up front with Le Guen. He know's he can't afford to blow it with such a great catch of a manager.

True, all accounts seem to give credence to PLG knowing what he was given so he will be happy and he seems to have accepted that, so I presume he thinks he can do a good job under those circumstances. I wouldn't say he KNOWS he can't afford to blow it but I certainly hope he does - because make no mistake, PLG is a HUGE catch for our club.

 

 

They are probably playing it down to dampen our high spending expectations, which have been wildly discussed at around the 18M mark, and also to help in hard nosed negotiations which seem to be our trademark these days.

Hopefully you are correct !

 

 

However I'm trusting Le guen to make the most of the money available, he really does come across as having his head screwed on straight. Agreed, I have more confidence in him working under tight financial constraints than many, many other managers - he appears to be a very good tactician who also holds the respect of his players - and even without money those are very valuable tools for seeing success.