Had things panned out as Dave King thinks they should, Rangers would right now be laying down the foundations to an era of domination.
With Celtic’s dreams of 10 in a row crushed and a major refurb required across the city, the former Ibrox chairman believes the building blocks were there for the Light Blues to construct a period of sustained success. But instead of 55 being the the first of many, the South Africa-based businessman has returned to Glasgow this week to find Rangers ’ title aspirations again lie in ruins.
Gio van Bronckhorst is carrying the can for this latest collapse, sacked on Monday after failing to put the breaks on Ange Postecoglou’s Hoops who now look destined to claim an 11th league crown out of 12. But King reckons the Dutchman was always on a hiding to nothing as Rangers failed to reinvest after their 2021 league success. And it’s that reluctance to spend he claims ultimately convinced Steven Gerrard to quit this time last year as Aston Villa came calling.
The former Ibrox chief said: “Gio probably ended up in a similar situation to the one Steven was in. Steven was there, won 55, wanted to kick on. Steven was given certain commitments by the chairman as to what resources would be made available to him.
“It was very important for Steven to kick on, to win the title and to start our own run for 10 in a row. We are only talking a short period of time ago we were so far ahead of the competition in Scotland.
“We won the league by a country mile, our opposition were in turmoil throughout the summer and couldn’t get a manager. (Postecoglou) came in, with all respect to him, as an unknown coach that didn’t know Scottish football.
“The position Rangers were in at the beginning of last season was really one where I thought we would embark on a number of titles and would go on to win a number in a row. If it wasn’t for the fact, first of all, Steven was let down in terms of the money promised to him and then secondly, when his relationship with the chairman got to the point when he was effectively forced out.
“To me, I don’t think the circumstances that forced Steven out of the club were any better when Gio came in. Therefore I’m kind of guarded in my comments about Gio and Ross Wilson.
"They’ve probably come up against some of the same obstacles with the board Steven encountered. That led effectively to Steven being forced out of the club at a time when he was top of the league and in the semi-final of the League Cup.”
And what about the fans who say sporting director Wilson should follow the manager out of the door after this summer’s failed recruitment drive? King – the man who appointed him three years ago – isn’t so sure. He said: “To some extent, we scored an own goal.
“But whether that own goal can be attributed to Ross I’m not certain. The best thing I can say is in my experience of working with Ross, I found him to be very professional and very thorough. At the time I left the club, I was confident the path Ross was taking the club on in the football side of things was the right path and that he had the ability to do that.
“It’s clear things have changed but I’m not privy to the reasons for that. Much of what has happened since hasn’t worked out. I’m very concerned about the extent to which Ross got the support from the club.”
During an hour-long quizzing from fans, King railed against the club’s “spin-doctoring” and the failure to be straight with fans still struggling to get their heads around why the club did not plough millions from this summer’s sales of Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey and qualification for the Champions League back into the team.
He said: “We’re saying ‘what are you actually doing with the money?’ Just tell us. My preference is to engage with the board. I’m the largest shareholder.
"I’ve been in business 40-odd years and never seen a situation where the largest shareholder is ignored by the board. At the AGM last year, Stewart Robertson and Douglas Park said the club was going to make a profit. Fantastic.
“We’d won a league and were competing in Europe. But look at what’s happened thereafter. After that statement was made in early December, we sold Nathan Patterson for a fee of £12million.
We made it through the group and into the knock-out stages, another £15m-£17m. Joe Aribo was sold for £8m. Then £23m for Calvin Bassey. You are talking about over £50m.
“No one has come to the supporters and said, ‘we’ve changed our view, the money is not going to go into the squad any more’.
“There’s no communication. That’s why we need changes. We need a board that doesn’t spin doctor. What the board aren’t doing is taking stakeholders into its confidence and saying, ‘listen, this is what we are doing with the money.’
“So when there is a ticket increase, we don’t promise we are going to put the money into the squad. Just tell everyone what you’re doing with the money.”
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