Dave King Rangers talkSPORT Q&A in FULL as he fears Celtic will be crowned world's most successful club
Dave King fears Rangers' claim to being the world's most successful club is in grave danger.
Gers and Celtic are locked on 118 trophies apiece but the Hoops can overtake their bitter rivals if they win more silverware this season. Brendan Rodgers' side are also heavy favourites to be crowned champions for a Scottish record-equalling 55th time in a campaign that could see the Light Blues relinquish their two cherished brags - although Egyptian heavyweights Al Ahly are officially recognised as football's most decorated club with 121 major honours.
Castlemilk-born tycoon King last night opened the door to a sensational return to Ibrox in the wake of chairman John Bennett's shock resignation as he outlined a two-year plan to get the crisis-hit club back on track. And in an interview with talkSPORT today, King spoke openly and honestly about the challenges ahead and how he would attempt to bridge the massive Old Firm gulf.
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Are you returning to Rangers?
"The situation is certainly not that I'm returning. What I've done is I've made myself available and the reasons for that are that it is as much as it was unsurprising for me that John's stepped down because I've been in fairly regular contact with him and I really do completely understand the stress and the impact of being a chairman of Rangers at this point of time has been having on him.
"I just hope he's well and I just hope that now he has stepped down that he can get back to normal. Having seen John stepping down, under normal circumstances, I would've expected someone else to step up from the board. What I've heard is what the board have decided to do is go outside and get a headhunter, try and get a chairman and a CEO, the job at Rangers is very different from trading at a public company. Right now, the club is in crisis, the extent of it I don't know. Only those inside do know. Certainly, the operational issues at Rangers are a challenge and a lot of the policies, procedures and processes that were in place at the time I stepped down have been hollowed out during Douglas' reign. I thought if no one is going to step up and we're going to have to go to some external city-type appointment, I'm absolutely certain will not take the club forward.
"As the leading shareholder, perhaps I can step up for a period of time. So I've made an announcement that I'm available do that. I think something has to happen fairly quickly. The club lacks leadership in all aspects of the club. Clearly, we don't all know what is going wrong. A lot is going wrong, it's recruitment, it's on and off the field issues, there's poor management issues. Something as simple as the stadium, you don't have to be smart to know that if you've got a project like that, that must start 10 minutes after the team finishes the last game in May. If you're going to open Ibrox for absolutely vital European qualifiers where Ibrox is a hue advantage for Rangers. We've seen that against bigger and better teams. To have started that project with some of the steel still in China does indicates a lack of basic project management and management skills. I'm afraid that's what's happening right through the club at the moment. I've got the biggest interest. There is a crisis. I think it needs someone to step in quite quickly so I've just thrown my name in the hat and it's now up to the board I guess to decide what they want to do with it."
Does it sadden you that Rangers are in crisis and lack leadership?
"I think that's 100 per cent right. There's sadness, disappointment and so many other words I could apply in a similar vein. There are probably two main categories. At the time we went through the rebuild of the club, and again to use the term, the club had been hollowed out and back to the Easdales and Mike Ashley situation. We had to rebuild all of those policies, procedures, scouting... everything within the club was broken and we got it to a point where we were able to make decisions and take some management risks. At least there was solidarity and progress was being made and that got us to 55 which was the target. My biggest disappointment is to see the areas where we have gone backwards where policies that were in place are no longer complied with by the present board such as the recruitment of players and how we write commercial contracts with players. All of the things that we were very careful with have just been abandoned - managers are allowed to do their own thing with no oversight from the board. The limited resources we had in competing with our neighbours had to be applied very smartly. We did the opposite - we’ve actually wasted money. My second disappointment is, that there was a great opportunity with the American consortium. We were trying to get substantial funds into the club. I’d seen proof of funds and negotiated with them on a business basis, they were going to come in and it was rejected by Douglas Park quite frankly, not even by the board, on the basis the board would put the money in and had everything under control. Clearly that hasn’t happened. So not only have we failed to take in new money that was vital to closing the gap but we’ve also wasted the limited resources we did have and wasted the value of the Europa League run and some very nice transfers with Nathan Patterson and Calvin Bassey which was a windfall for the club to help us bridge the gap and instead we've just wasted it."
How is your criticism going to play out if you come back to Rangers?
"Well, I don't think it's going to be comfortable for some who are in place right now. Yeah, some of the incumbents would not like the idea of me coming back. I think they know how I work. I'm fairly direct, I expect results and results quite quickly and I expect people to put the shoulder to the wheel which I think is not what's happened. So yes, I can imagine that there are some within the club who might be more comfortable with an external appointment. The question is from the club's point of view, they've got the advantage that I am the largest shareholder so there's a strong economic interest in my part to get things right and secondly, at least I've got a track record."
Is this a call to action or actually you wanting to shake it up?
"It's not really a call to action in that sense, it's not a wake-up call. I think it does need someone to come in quickly, it needs someone with institutional experience and not an outsider that's going to spend months trying to get his arm around the problem. It needs somebody to come in quickly and I think there are two major objectives. One is to reintroduce the operational policies, controls, procedures and processes that have gone missing over the last couple of years. And secondly, to find a new investor. So I would imagine if I were to come in for a two-year period where I can first of all get the club up and running properly and have a proper plan going forward as to how we're going to bridge that gap. Now, I've got no idea what I'll find when I go in there. But hopefully, it's not as bad as it was when I first went in years ago."
What levers can you pull as a significant shareholder?
"I've had discussions with other parties around it who, I would need support of. It's not something I could do on my own. Certainly, there is a move by interesting parties with vested interest both within and outside the board who understand that there's a level of urgency. Certainly, on the pitch this season is slipping. I'm now talking as a supporter, I think it's going to be a very challenging season. At the end of October with European games coming up, I think the club could be in a very difficult place and there's no leadership. I had to give a lot of frank interviews and sometimes people didn't like them but they were always honest. The situation was what it was. I think the supporters if they are going to continue to support the club as opposed to becoming apathetic need to know the people that are there, are going to read the club. Must be visible, must be involved and must provide a way forward. It requires someone to go in there and find out what is actually going on. At the moment, I don't think most of the board members have got any idea what's going on because they are so remote from the business. But I think John has taken on a very, very heavy burden. It's taken its toll on him. He's done it with enthusiasm, he's doing it with loyalty and passion. John is a great Rangers man but it did great damage to his health and he has to look after himself first. The question now that he has gone.. we know there's no leadership at all, can we take the time to get a recruitment agency to go and try and find a chairman and CEO? That will take months, it will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds which we would rather be spent on the team quite frankly and I don't think we have that time and I don't think bringing someone without institutional experience and an understanding of Rangers and Glasgow is going to give us a short-term turnaround. So I think the turnaround becomes a long-term turnaround and then my fear, longer term as a fan, isn’t about stopping 10-in-a-row which was my previous target. One thing we do hang onto is we are still the most successful club in the world and if we slip too long we might lose that honour as well."
Have you spoken to Philippe Clement?
"I have never met him and so I've never spoken to him. But it certainly would be the very first conversation I would have if I went in and tried to understand where he's coming from, what was promised to him and where he's feeling about things right now. Where he feels he needs support, what he needs to get the backing. So certainly it would be a very positive discussion to see if he's up for the obvious challenge that we will have over the next couple of years because it will be a challenge and some of the decisions as like my previous tenure, may not always be popular. But it will always be done with the interests of getting Rangers back to, where I certainly hope as a supporter and also as an investor, would like to see them."