Le Guen admits Ibrox talks

The Rangers chairman, David Murray, will step up his efforts over the next 48 hours to bring in Paul Le Guen as the club's new manager. The former Lyon coach confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets when he admitted yesterday to being in talks with the Ibrox club.

Le Guen's long-time assistant, Yves Colleu, was in Glasgow over the weekend - with Le Guen's family - to view property. Colleu believes Murray will have his answer from Le Guen by tomorrow over his possible succession to Alex McLeish.

Murray will aim to complete the deal as soon as possible having moved to quell the anger of supporters, in the wake of the disappointing Scottish Cup defeat by Hibernian, by confirming McLeish will leave at the end of the season.

A number of supporters demonstrated against Murray outside Ibrox in the wake of that 3-0 Cup defeat but now the Rangers chairman has turned his sights on Le Guen, who guided Lyon to three French titles and successive Champions' League quarter-finals in 2004 and 2005. "We are discussing but we have not yet reached the point where we sign a contract," Le Guen said yesterday.

Hearts have appointed Jim Duffy as director of football until the end of the season. The former Hibernian and Dundee manager was originally brought in by head coach Graham Rix at the end of January to help with coaching.

However, after the Jambos' 2-1 defeat by Aberdeen at Tynecastle on Saturday, majority shareholder, Vladimir Romanov, has moved Duffy into his new role, which ostensibly promotes him above Rix. But Rix said he was "delighted" by the appointment. "It is excellent for Hearts and Jim is certainly a great asset for this club," he said.

"He knows the game inside out and can be fully trusted with all footballing matters here. I can now focus on coaching and developing the first team after a couple of testing weeks."