Knives are out

It was a pretty quiet and almost uneventful day on the Ibrox-front – in fact events were conspicuous by their absence.

But at around 10pm this evening rumours were gathering apace about yet more unrest in the camp with the emergence of a disturbing story involving the under-pressure boss and the well-regarded fullback Phil Bardsley, on loan from Man Utd.

The nature of reports being spread like wildfire involved Bardsley, Le Guen, Buffel, and the upcoming trip to Livorno.

Word had it that Bardsley had broken the (Frankly absurd) no-tackling in training rule ridiculously implemented by Le Guen, by engaging in some kind of defiant challenge on Buffel.

Alleged result? Left out of the squad travelling to Livorno and told to stay at home. Subsequent result of this is Bardsley walking out of Ibrox in disgust, and out of the picture for good, so it seems.

It must be reiterated this is still just a rumour at this point and nothing has been officially confirmed by the club, so unless it is, feel free to remain sceptical.

However, apparently being reported on two national radio stations (Radio Clyde and Real Radio) would increase the momentum on the story and give it a little more clout than pure hearsay.

If this story is true it is staggering; that’s the third well-rated player, British based, that PLG has either not fancied or fallen out with. Add Ricksen to that and it seems more and more players are losing faith in the boss.

This doesn’t even begin to explore the quite preposterous ‘no-tackling’ policy allegedly installed from youth levels at Ibrox up the way – debate ensues about whether it has been added at senior levels but Bardsley’s dismissal apparently for tackling seems to verify it. Le Guen is damaging our club the longer he remains in charge. His methods do not work here and he is unwilling to be flexible.

In fact, in the course of writing this article Bardsley’s fall-out has been confirmed by the BBC.

The fourth player to have major issues with Le Guen, Bardsley is yet another who’s well-regarded in general by the fans – Le Guen making all these enemies at Ibrox is categorically killing us the longer it goes on.

Paul Le Guen’s time at Ibrox is looking increasingly bleak.