GRAHAM SPIERS' PAUL LE GUEN BOOK – KEEP THE FAITH EXCLUSIVE

Before anyone else has cast a critical eye, Keep The Faith reviews Graham Spiers' much anticipated book about Paul Le Guen's disastrous and hilarious French Revolution at Rangers.

Super Sally is our Reviewer:

Let me be totally honest here. I am a perverted voyeur who loves a good car crash! So when I was alerted to the fact that Graham Spiers, probably viewed by the majority of Timdom as the most balanced, contemporary Scottish football journalist, was writing a book about Paul le Guen's time at Ibrox, I had to read it.

Before I could read it though I have to say I was a little reticent about spending my hard earned cash on anything associated with Rangers. So I am grateful to a friend in the publishing industry (a Chelsea-supporting Celtic fan – they do exist!) for getting me a free copy well in advance of general publication.

So on to the book, intriguingly titled, “Paul Le Guen: Enigma, A Chronicle of Trauma and Turmoil at Rangers”.

The cynic in me immediately noticed that the official publication date is the 2nd August, 2 days before the SPL season kicks off. I wondered if Spiers was part of the so-called Timmy conspiracy against Rangers (his late reference to Celtic being a more “humane” club surely gets him onto the Follow-Follow banned list!). There may be something in that because Spiers makes it abundantly clear that Murray tried to get him sacked whilst he was at The Herald.

Spiers tries to rise above it in all his references to Murray, but I always sensed that he still holds some justifiable resentment against the rest of the media's darling. In fact, Spiers states what many of us in Timdom have suspected for quite some time that Murray “often moulded the outlook of the press in his (sic) fingers”. Spiers never refers to succulent lamb, but does mention fear of reprisals for being “off-side”!

I suspect I am like most Tims who wanted to read this book in that I wanted to find out about the internal strife during that time, particularly the alleged “Monster Munch Revolution” and find answers to questions like: was PLG shafted over transfer money? Was he paid off? What was his view of Murray and Walter Smith?

A whole chapter is dedicated to Barry Ferguson, entitled, “The Trouble with Barry Ferguson” and to be frank I didn't learn a whole lot new in there aside from the role that club doctor Ian McGuiness played in PLG's downfall. Alex McLeish is quoted as warning McGuinness that he ought to expect to play a less prominent role under PLG, but that advice was ignored and Spiers asserts that McGuinness clearly played a pivotal role with Ferguson, Boyd and others in creating unrest. Albeit PLG didn't do himself any favours when he made McGuiness babysit Fernando Ricksen back from South Africa after the Dutchman's drunken antics and initially telling him to stay in Glasgow, only for the doctor to be recalled two days later.

McGuiness was sacked within a week or so of PLG's departure. Murray may not sack managers, but we know about underlings!

There is an interesting section on the transfers to Rangers of the world-beaters Papac, Sionko and of course Sebo, all of whom came from Austria Vienna. It seems that PLG was as culpable as anyone in as much as that he was desperate for “cheap” players and Austria Vienna were desperate to off-load players. A match made in heaven for Timdom!

Spiers asserts that PLG had a clear idea of funds available to him, he just had a “freewheeling” attitude to transfers. The idea that PLG was shafted for transfer funds is a bizarre one really and seems to have arisen as much by Murray's spin as anything in that, in a desperate attempt to continue his one-upmanship on Celtic, Murray included things like agents fees when he announced spending. Whereas in the “every fiver, we spend a tenner” era, Murray never would include the add-ons. PLG asserts that he always knew what his budget was.

It will come as no surprise to anyone in Timdom that Spiers quotes Walter Smith saying, “There is a Protestant superiority syndrome around this club…you can feel it”.

What may surprise readers is that PLG does not attribute the cultural issues as being at all relevant to his departure, but ironically his mother does question that.

As for PLG's views on Murray and Smith, none are explicitly given, although it is clear that PLG felt badly let down when he approached Murray to sell Ferguson after the chairman publicly backed the manager just a month earlier. As an aside, Spiers claims Ferguson started to panic when he got wind that a book was pending. Ironically another French managerial legend, Arsene Wenger, is quoted as saying that PLG should “have acted earlier” in axing Ferguson.

The book doesn't dwell wholly on the period PLG was in charge, but gives some background into what makes Rangers and I found some a real nugget of interest in the quote of former Rangers manager Willie Waddell: “It is to those tikes, hooligans, louts and drunkards…..your gutter-rat behaviour that Rangers are being tarred and feathered”! Particularly ironic one might argue given the recent press coverage of Ally McCoist's comments, which were made more than 30 years later. Plus ca change, plus la meme chose!

And I will end on the Rangers gutter-rat theme because for me the most startling revelation in the book revolves around Martin O'Neill's involvement in landing Rangers in trouble with UEFA.

Spiers claims, and I have no reason to disbelieve him, to have had insider knowledge on the whole process which resulted in Rangers being fined and warned on their future conduct by UEFA. All Tims will remember Ibrox in November 2004, when chaos reigned and MON ended up on the pitch with Neil Lennon, with the Celtic Manager holding a clenched fist aloft.

Many will remember MON's tirade about the “sectarian and racist” abuse that Neil Lennon had been subjected to. But I doubt I am alone in not remembering EXACTLY where MON said it. MON in fact made his comments in a press conference in the Nou Camp before our Champions League tie against Barcelona - and that is significant.

MON clearly calculated on the fact that if he had said this at Celtic Park, the usual Scottish press reaction would have been to ignore it, but that couldn't be done now and it was picked up on UEFA's radar and led to the closer scrutiny of Rangers fans' behaviour.

I wasn't at all shocked by the revelation that a significant reason that UEFA had problems in investigating Rangers fans' sectarian singing and chanting was because UEFA had difficulty in getting expert witnesses to come forward because, as Spiers puts it, “they refused for fear of reprisals or intimidation”.

In conclusion, not the earth shattering expose I had hoped for, but an interesting read nevertheless. And if you are an accident voyeur like me (and like the other Tims on my waiting list to borrow the book), this is worth the read - but get it free from your local library.

‘Paul Le Guen: The Enigma. A Chronicle of Trauma and Turmoil at Rangers'

Author – Graham Spiers

Published on the 2nd August by Mainstream Publishing

Priced £9.99.