DAVE KING TITLE 55 IS SIMPLY THE BEST
Gers saviour insists this crown tops all others
WHEN Dave King returned to Rangers to seize control with his Three Bears consortium six years ago, he wondered if the Ibrox club would EVER be back at the top of the pile.
That’s why the former chairman is adamant when he insists the title delivered by Steven Gerrard and his players over the past eight months is by far the most important in Rangers’ 149-year history. That’s a hefty statement indeed. But King, who never shied from making bullish claims when in charge at Ibrox – none more so than predicting Celtic would “fold like a pack of cards” if Rangers could win just one title under the ex-Liverpool captain – couldn’t be clearer. The boyhood Light Blues fan watched his side conquer Europe in the 70s, romp to a nine-in-a-row championship charge in the 80s and 90s, and was in a first term on the board as they enjoyed domestic success in the noughties, leading to a 54th championship in 2011.
But after plunging into administration and then slumming it in the bottom division a few months later, the Ibrox side’s quest for 55 has been anything but plain sailing.
Such was the state of the club and its infrastructure after years of mismanagement following the financial turmoil of 2012 that King admits there was a genuine possibility when he took over, along with Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor, that Rangers might never have recovered from it.
So after watching his boyhood heroes end a decade-long wait to claim the Scottish football crown, the South Africa-based businessman was understandably elated by the feat.
He said: “It’s No.55, so you would think it’s one of many and it kind of gets lost in that.
“But this to me is by far the most important title Rangers have ever won.”
Speaking to the Essential Scottish Football Podcast, the 65-year-old explained exactly why.
He said: “I was a kid growing up in Glasgow when Celtic were doing their nine in a row and Celtic had this invincible team.
“And when they’re going six, seven, eight, it seems like you can’t understand where the next title will come from at that point in time.
“But you know somehow it will turn around and Rangers will get back there.
“And the same with when Rangers were doing nine in a row, I was on the other side of that.
“I was on the board already
and that team looked like it would go on to 10, 11, 12 and it didn’t happen.
“But there was still a sense that it would shift and Rangers might dominate, Celtic might dominate, other clubs might come in from time to time.
“But this one was different. When I got involved with the club again, it wasn’t a normal situation where we were waiting for some change in fortune.
“The club was just in such bad shape that there was a genuine possibility at that time of the club never having recovered.
“So if I look at it in that context, then certainly in getting back and saying we have recovered, we are back, we are strong, emotionally and intellectually I consider this to be, by far, the most important title the club have ever won.”
Gerrard’s appointment in May 2018 undoubtedly proved the turning point from a footballing perspective. It may have taken three years but the Anfield legend, in his first senior management job, has built a team that has swept aside anything in its way this term.
They demolished Celtic’s bid for a historic 10 in a row and wrapped up the title with six games to spare.
Employing the untested Gerrard was a bold move by King, a gamble after the failed Pedro Caixinha experiment.
Rangers had to get it right if they were to stop the Celtic juggernaut.
King insists Gerrard has delivered on his timescale while the club have the infrastructure in place to go on and lead Scottish football once again.
He said: “When I re-engaged with the club, we failed to get out of the Championship that season so were relegated to another season in the Championship.
“On the best basis we were looking at that time to four to five years. Four to five years in terms of getting the team out of the Championship was priority No.1, then building the club to get back into Europe.
“And doing that in parallel with all the infrastructure demands that we had as well meant the money could not all go into the football team.
“At best I think it could have been one season earlier.
“I think that we did have a misstep on the footballing side with the changes in managers, with Mark (Warburton) going out, with Pedro coming in and then, ultimately, moving on to Steven.
“I think that we missed maybe a year in terms of football development.
“Bringing in Steven probably accelerated things a bit because he has pretty much delivered on his timetable.
“When I initially spoke to Steven, we both agreed that turning the footballing side around – assuming that financial resources were available to him – we were maybe looking at four transfer windows. It couldn’t be a big bang approach because that wouldn’t work and it doesn’t work in footballing terms.”
King will sell his 20 per cent stake to supporters group Club 1872 over the next three years.
And he said: “I think my main achievement would be winning the title.
Steven has pretty well delivered on his timetable for the club DAVE KING HAILS THE EFFECT OF GERRARD
“But winning the title on the basis where the resources to achieve that were equally balanced with a need to restore the club to be fit for purpose.
“We’ve got an infrastructure in place. We’ve got a scouting system, we’ve got a management team, we’ve got sports science. “Rangers are now back to being a leading club in how we go about running the football business.”