Paul Le Guen

Paul Joseph Marie Le Guen (, ; born 1 March 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player.

He was most recently the manager of Ligue 2 club Le Havre.

His record across his first ten league games was the worst start to a season by an Old Firm debutant since John Greig's team won only two, drew six and lost two of their opening ten games in 1978–79.

On 8 November, Rangers were knocked out of the Scottish League Cup at the quarter-final stage by First Division side St Johnstone.

The result, the first time Rangers had been knocked out of a cup tournament by a lower league side at home, prompted protests outside Ibrox and demands for the situation to improve.

During his playing career, Le Guen played as a midfielder, and enjoyed a successful stay with Paris Saint-Germain between 1991 and 1998, and won 17 caps for the France national team.

At international level, Le Guen played 17 times for France, due to injuries and he was part of the team which lost out on a trip to the 1994 FIFA World Cup, along with Eric Cantona and David Ginola.

Le Guen scored the winning goal in the 1995 Coupe de France Final against Strasbourg.

In seven seasons at the Parc des Princes, he made 478 appearances, winning a league title, three French Cups, two League Cups and the Cup Winners' Cup medal in 1996.

He ended his playing career by taking part in a friendly where Brittany faced Cameroon on 21 May 1998.

The match finished in a 1–1 draw.

Le Guen had a successful managerial career in France, most notably leading Olympique Lyonnais to three consecutive Ligue 1 titles.

He has also managed Stade Rennais, Paris Saint-Germain, Rangers, the Cameroon national team, the Oman national team, Bursaspor and Le Havre.

During his time at Rennes between 1998 and 2001, Le Guen was noted for signing then unknown players, such as Shabani Nonda and El Hadji Diouf, who under his guidance, developed into talented footballers.

He resigned from Rennes in 2001 after a fall-out with the club's board.

This led to him taking a year off from football.

As a manager, his most notable achievement has been winning the Ligue 1 title in each of his three seasons in charge of Lyon between 2002 and 2005.

Le Guen was born in Pencran, Finistère.

During his playing career, he played at Stade Brest for five years and Nantes Atlantique for two years, before leaving his home region of Brittany for Paris Saint-Germain.

Le Guen replaced Jacques Santini as manager of Olympique Lyonnais on 21 May 2002 after they captured their first league title.

Le Guen experienced a grim start to his managerial career at Lyon, winning only three games of the first nine, but eventually took Lyon to a further three consecutive championships and reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-final.

He resigned from his position at Lyon on 9 May 2005, the day after the club won their fourth consecutive Ligue 1 championship, with Gérard Houllier taking over.

After leaving the club, Le Guen embarked upon another year away from football management.

During this time, he turned down management positions at several top European clubs, including Benfica and Lazio, and also stated that he would not return to manage his former club Paris Saint-Germain.

On 11 March 2006, it was confirmed that Le Guen had agreed to replace Alex McLeish as manager of Rangers starting in the 2006–07 season.

Le Guen signed a three-year contract with the option to extend his stay at Ibrox, and quickly acquired a number of players.

Le Guen was the first Catholic to manage Rangers, a team with a historically Protestant identity.

Le Guen made a poor start to his Ibrox career.

Le Guen's European record with Rangers has been described as being 'excellent' after remaining unbeaten in the 2006–07 UEFA Cup and finishing at the top of their group.

However, it was the poor domestic results that ultimately led to his departure.

On 1 January 2007, Rangers announced that Le Guen had stripped Barry Ferguson of his captaincy of the club and dropped him from the squad for a match the following day.

BBC Sport reported that Ferguson would not play for Rangers again under Le Guen.

Club chairman David Murray announced on 4 January 2007 that Le Guen had left Rangers by mutual consent.

At the time, this made him the club's shortest-serving manager, and the only one to leave the club without completing a full season in charge.

It was announced on 15 January 2007 that Le Guen would return to the club he once skippered as a player as first team coach replacing Guy Lacombe at Paris Saint-Germain.

As the 2007–08 season in Ligue 1 unfolded, it was clear that Le Guen was getting inconsistent performances from the crop of players, as the club was in the relegation zone with four games in the league season remaining, while winning the Coupe de la Ligue after beating Lens with 2–1, as well as qualifying for the final of the Coupe de France.

Winning the Coupe de la Ligue guaranteed the side a place in the UEFA Cup for the 2008–09 season.

PSG announced on 5 May 2009 that Le Guen would not be offered a new contract and would leave at the end of the 2008–09 season.

In July 2016, he was to be named manager of the Nigeria national team, but didn't agree to the contract terms.

When Le Guen arrived, PSG were lying 17th in Ligue 1 but he led them to safety in his first season finishing 15th.