Dave King has accused the Rangers board of frittering away the chance to build a lasting title legacy at Ibrox by failing to reinvest in the squad.
Just over a year on from romping to the club’s first Premiership success in a decade with a 25-point winning margin under Steven Gerrard, Rangers again find themselves trailing in Celtic’s wake. And former Ibrox chairman King believes his former boardroom allies must take responsibility for the position they now find themselves in after Saturday’s brutal Old Firm dismembering.
The Gers have banked around £100million over the past year with their European exploits and sales of star assets such as Nathan Patterson, Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey. But boss Gio van Bronkchorst has been given just a fraction of that sum to rebuild his team and it showed as the lacklustre Light Blues suffered yet another Parkhead pummelling from Ange Postecoglou’s red-hot Hoops.
Speaking from his Johannesburg base, Castlemilk-born tycoon King said: “If I go back to the end of last year when the club presented its accounts and Douglas Park and Stewart Robertson said the club was going to be profitable this year.
“That benchmark for profitability for this year did not include Nathan Patterson’s transfer, did not include at that stage reaching the group stagesof the Europa League, did not include running to the final of the Europa League, did not include this season getting into Champions League.
“If I add all the bonuses and pluses we have got from a situation that was already profitable, I am just very, very concerned that I am not seeing these funds being channelled back into the team. If I go back to title 55 and where we were as a club relative to Scottish football, we dominated that season.
“We had the chance to kick-on - and really kick-on - but we didn’t improve the squad. We are seeing all this money coming in and it is fantastic financially, but at the end of the day is it going to go back into the team?
“We have lost some really good players and if I look at the squad as a whole relative to the team that won 55, Allan McGregor has been moved out, Steven Davis is getting less game time. If you look at the squad then and the squad now, I am really not seeing a significantly, in my view, stronger team for all the additional money that has come into the club.”
Last year’s attempt to defend the title fell apart after Steven Gerrard quit the club just weeks after bemoaning his meagre budget. His replacement van Bronckhorst has led a continental surge since taking over the Ibrox reigns, leading his team to last season’s Europa League final and this year’s Champions League group stage.
Yet the Dutchman has been given handed a sum of just under £11million to reinvest on his seven new faces this summer. But King - speaking amid the backdrop of reports that the club has booted out a potential £75million investment pledge from US businesswoman Kyle Fox - can’t understand the reluctance to spend given his belief that Gers have now finally recovered from the financial implosion they suffered a decade ago.
“There is surplus cash there,” insisted the former chairman. “The board can decide to spend it or not.
“I can’t think why they would’t spend it. But if they don’t spend it, they are going to be running up a kitty.
“I really feel as if we have finally got through that barrier of having any concern whatsoever about finance. I think that’s behind us now.”
The performance of Ross Wilson as sporting director is starting to draw more and more scrutiny from disgruntled fans. But King insists the Ibrox recruitment chief can only work within the budget he’s given.
He added: “(The lack of investment) was a big surprise to me.
“With Rangers, you always had a plan ‘A’,’B’ and ‘C’. Plan A is how you do in Scotland if you don’t get into the group stages of the Europa League.
“Plan B is what happens if you do get in and Plan C is what happens if you reach the group stages of the Champions League. Clearly, the club is not going to win the Champions League. You are not going to spend the kind of money needed to win it.
“But you can take away the bonuses gained from reaching the Champions League to strengthen your team so you can win the Scottish Premier League. Given where we’ve come from, and given we’ve now got the Champions League money, I am extremely surprised that Douglas hasn’t made that available to Ross to significantly strengthen the team.
“I am surprised the surplus resources the club now has hasn’t found its way back into the team.”
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