Little detail in King’s charter
THERE seems as much chance of Dave King being made an ambassador for VisitScotland as there is of Nigel Farage taking an extended vow of silence. And more’s the pity on that front. The Rangers chairman made one of his rare visits to Glasgow this week, taking the opportunity to meet new manager Pedro Caixinha, attend a board meeting, and give his thoughts to the media on a number of burning issues. In that latter address, he did not give the impression of being a man overly delighted to be back in the country. Or with any intention of permanently relocating from South Africa. “People say I am absent,” he said. “I am here far more often than I would like to be.” King, in fact, did not seem hugely enamoured to be Rangers chairman at all, shattering the lifelong dream of those Lottery hopefuls who plan on buying and running their local club should all six numbers ever come up. “Is it fun? Of course it is not fun. There is nothing fun about what I am doing,” he said. “Litigation, people trying to put me in jail, and I am being sued by Sports Direct. What is fun about that?” It was how you would imagine Larry David would react were the Curb Your Enthusiasm star to ever find himself running his beloved New York Yankees. Where King lives isn’t hugely significant for the most part. Nor is the fact he doesn’t find being in charge of a major sporting institution a massive barrel of laughs. What matters is he remains committed to the task of running Rangers from afar, and that he has a clear and realistic vision for the long-term future of the club. On neither front, however, was King able to deliver the conclusive message that might have settled any lingering anxiety among a support that have suffered more than most in recent years. King, it became apparent, is only doing the job because he feels nobody else is either willing or able to take it on. “Did I want to do it? No, I didn’t want to do it,” he said. “I absolutely didn’t want to do it. Is the club better with a local chairman? Where would he come from?”
Given the reputations of some of those who preceded him in the role, perhaps Rangers fans should be grateful that one of their own has agreed to take on the burden, but it does raise the question of why his Glasgow-based fellow directors were either all reluctant to take on the mantle, or deemed unsuitable.
With Rangers operating without a chief executive, it leaves them without a recognisable and visible leader during critical times, such as the managerial upheaval that saw Mark Warburton depart and Caixinha come in.
The very able Stewart Robertson, the club’s managing director, was charged with leading the three-man recruitment panel that appointed the Portuguese and did so diligently. It still felt slightly incongruous, however, for Rangers to be unveiling a new manager without the club chairman alongside him. So much for presentation and perception. Perhaps of greater concern for some fans will be the lack of detail in King’s plans for the road ahead. Rangers remain a financial curiosity, hamstrung by the onerous retail deals struck with Sports Direct and Mike Ashley, but backed by the second-largest support base in the country and the revenue streams that delivers.
Catching and then overhauling Celtic remains the primary long-term goal but how that might be be possible has yet to be fully articulated. Perhaps the plan is that, somehow, little by little, Rangers can start to narrow the gap. Maybe the hope is that eventually complacency will set in at Celtic. Or perhaps, privately, Rangers know there is next to no chance of them winning the title for the foreseeable future but could never admit as much in public.
For now, the onus is on Caixinha to breathe fresh life into a playing squad that has regressed. He will be given an unspecified level of funds to try to improve on what he has inherited, with a view to ensuring Rangers finish a clear second behind Celtic next season.
But on other matters, such as the appointment of a director of football, beefing up a youth academy that has failed to produce a first-team regular since Barrie McKay, attracting external investment, and implementing a better scouting network to allow Rangers to ape Celtic’s previous policy of buying low and selling high, King made little or no mention. Perhaps all of these pivotal matters are being worked on behind the scenes. Rangers fans must certainly hope so.
What matters most is that Dave King remains committed to the task of running Rangers from afar