Paul Le Guen came to Rangers in the summer of 2006 with a reputation that stretched the length of the Champs Elysees.

But the Frenchman lasted barely seven months at Ibrox and holds the distinction of being the club's shortest-serving manager.

Everyone had bought into the choice of Le Guen as a replacement for Alex McLeish and his CV was mightily impressive, boasting three consecutive French titles with Lyon and qualification for the knockout phase of the Champions League.

However, his appointment simply did not work. His team, filled with uninspiring signings, lacked consistency. It seemed soft-centred and Rangers were well adrift of Celtic in the title race before Christmas.

There was also disharmony in the camp. It came to a head when Le Guen stripped Barry Ferguson of the captaincy and dropped him for a match against Motherwell on January 2, 2007.

Two days later, Le Guen and his backroom team were gone. Rangers were in disarray and chairman Sir David Murray knew there was only one man to retrieve the situation – Walter Smith.

Smith had resurrected the pride and the fortunes of the Scotland team after taking over from Berti Vogts. On January 10, he was officially announced as Rangers manager for a second time.

"I got a phone call out of the blue from Sir David Murray wanting to know if I would be interested in coming back," Smith said. "I was surprised, to say the least.

"I would never have thought of leaving the Scotland job for any other position, especially in the middle of a qualifying campaign. It was a very difficult decision, but it was an offer I couldn't turn down."

Smith brought with him Ally McCoist, who had been his lieutenant with Scotland, and then pinched Kenny McDowall from Celtic, where he had been highly successful with the reserve and youth teams.

"I needed a younger staff and my initial plan was I would come back for a couple of seasons and then give someone else the opportunity to take over," Smith said. "These thoughts were shared with Sir David Murray and we both agreed Alistair would be the man who would come into that category.

"He had done a very good job [with the national team] so I felt it was only natural he would come with me back to Rangers. He readily agreed and that was one down.

"Ian Durrant was already at the club as a coach, but I still felt I needed to get another to offer a different perspective.

"Kenny McDowall was someone many people had spoken about, so I felt he would be a good addition."

Smith's first task was to steady the ship. The league was over and Rangers were out of both cups. Securing a place in qualifying for the next season's Champions League was a must and he knew he needed more muscle.

"Rangers had just lost to Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup, were 17 points behind in the championship and under threat for second place from Hearts and Aberdeen," he said.

"We realised we needed a couple of British-type central defenders and managed to get Davie Weir and Ugo Ehiogu, as well as Kevin Thomson from Hibs.

"The first match, against Dundee United, was a nervous one – even if the 5-0 scoreline does not suggest it – because there was a danger of it being abandoned at half-time because of the weather. From then on we had a good run of wins and managed to secure second place."

Two wins against Celtic certainly cheered the fans up. On March 11, Smith won the first derby of his second spell, Ehiogu the unlikely match-winner with an overhead kick at Parkhead.

It was the first time Rangers had beaten their deadly rivals in seven matches and they did it again on May 5 when Celtic came to Ibrox.

Kris Boyd scored his only Old Firm goal and Charlie Adam fooled keeper Artur Boruc with a free-kick in a 2-0 victory.

"In the Old Firm environment, you always want to get a victory over your rivals as quickly as possible and so we finished the season well enough," Smith said.

"But we knew that the summer would be very important. We knew we would have to reinforce our group."

It would indeed be a busy summer and one of the major new names would be Carlos Cuellar, who had played for Osasuna against Rangers in the Uefa Cup.

"We had known about him beforehand because John Brown had gone out and done a bit of scouting for us," Smith said.

"And before the end of the season, Martin Bain and I went out to Madrid to secure his services. He turned out to be a terrific player for us."

However, the hard work was just beginning...

Walter: The Illustrated Story of a Rangers Legend, foreword by Sir Alex Ferguson, an official Rangers product and edited and produced by Rangers Media, published by Great Northern Books, 19 June 2011. Hardback, 160 pages, full colour throughout, price £24.99, ISBN: 9781905080540. Visit www.rangers.co.uk to order your copy!

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