Glasgow Rangers have parted company with manager Paul Le Guen by mutual consent in the best interests of the club.

The departure follows Le Guen’s decision to strip Barry Ferguson of the captaincy and drop him from the squad for the trip to Motherwell. It appeared the Le Guen had the backing of the board and that Ferguson had played his last game under Le Guen and his last game for his beloved Rangers. As it happens only the former is true so far, this sudden departure means that Le Guen will become part of Rangers history books as the manager with the shortest tenure in the clubs history at just seven months

On the face of things it doesn’t look too bad, Rangers are second in the SPL to Celtic which is not that unusual, and they have been very successful in Europe qualifying for the next round of the UEFA Cup. However when you look a little harder the cracks appear and you see that the points gap is too great for the Ibrox faithful and there was obvious discontent in the dressing room.

There are a host of names in the book to replace the Frenchman, favourite being Walter Smith, followed by his sidekick and TV personality Ally McCoist. Although the smart money would be on a return to the SPL of former Rangers and England defender Terry Butcher or Derby boss Billy Davies.