Murray predicted a fruitful reign under Le Guen, describing his capture as "a massive moonbeam of success" for the club and promising, "we’ve got big plans."

Known for unearthing and nurturing young talent, Le Guen made an immediate splash in the transfer market signing South African Under 19 player Dean Furman from Chelsea, and youngsters William Stanger and Antoine Ponroy from Rennes.

Rangers had been strongly linked with a host of other players and signed midfielder Jeremy Clement from Lyon and goalkeeper Lionel Letizi from Paris St Germain as a replacement for the departing Ronald Waterreus.

Le Guen's signings including Filip Šebo, Karl Svensson, Libor Sionko and Lionel Letizi but they simply did not perform, while Jérémy Clément was to be in Glasgow for only six months.

The squad flew out to South Africa on 9 July for a training camp where they played three matches, the first of which was a comfortable 4–0 win over local opposition with Charlie Adam netting a hat-trick.

Rangers also defeated Jomo Cosmos 2–0 but, with a largely depleted starting line-up, they lost their final match 2–0 against Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns.

Defender Fernando Ricksen did not take any part in the pre-season tour of South Africa due to what was described by the club as "unacceptable behaviour" on the flight to Johannesburg.

The SPL opening day on 30 July proved fruitful for Paul Le Guen's Rangers as they defeated Motherwell 2–1 at Fir Park, thanks to an early strike from Libor Sionko and the winning header from Dado Pršo In Le Guen's first competitive game at Ibrox, Rangers were held to a 2–2 draw by Dundee United, having been forced to come back from two-goals down.

Rangers also recruited the services of Austrian Vienna defender Saša Papac while Marvin Andrews, Olivier Bernard, Robert Malcolm and Hamed Namouchi all departed.