King: Gerrard can tip balance but we need the Champions League
● ‘One league title and Celtic will fall’ ● ‘No profit until we rejoin Euro elite’
Dave King believes Steven Gerrard can turn the balance of power in Scottish football back in Rangers’ favour by stemming the steady flow of Champions League money into Celtic’s bank account.
Rangers chairman King has predicted it will require just one Premiership title win for the Ibrox club to make Celtic’s current dominance of the domestic scene fall like “a pack of cards”.
The ambitious appointment of Gerrard as the new Rangers manager comes at a time when Celtic have posted a record turnover of £90 million and have reached the lucrative group stage of the Champions League for the past two years under Brendan Rodgers.
King admits that Rangers, with a turnover of just under £30 million last year, will never be in profit unless they qualify for the Champions League.
The south africa-based businessman insists he remains “happy” to continue advancing loans to the club, while a new share issue is expected to be launched in June which he believes will raise between £6m and £8m.
But King believes the gap which currently exists between Celtic and Rangers, both on and off the pitch, can be quickly addressed by Gerrard leading them to the Premiership crown.
“We appoint a manager who can win games and we take one league away from Celtic,” said King. “We only need one league. We don’t need two or three. We need one. Once we take one away, it’s a pack of cards.
“One would expect a reaction from Celtic to the appointment of Steven – we will have to wait and see what it is. But with all of Celtic’s resources at the moment, they are not a million points away from Aberdeen or Hibs, who have resources that are far less than what we have at the moment.
“We are bringing in a manager we think can tip the balance in our favour. Celtic might be over-resourced but you can still only play 11 players. They have a big squad earning a lot of wages but these wages are not all getting on the pitch.”
Scotland’s champions now face four qualifying rounds to reach the group stage of the Champions League but King is unfazed by that scenario.
“If it’s harder to qualify, then it’s harder for both of us,” he added. “We don’t have to guarantee it, we have to narrow the gap against Celtic. So if Celtic are not getting into the group stage, then that’s fine in that sense. It’s bad for Scottish football but it doesn’t create a gap between us. Celtic’s costs structure is more like we were ten years ago. We needed Champions League football and if we went into the Europa League we were in trouble because the cost structure was so high.
“Take that away for one season and it will change the numbers in the Celtic side very, very quickly. They have the comfort levels we once had of knowing we were going to get Champions League money. We have to take that away from them and hopefully we have started that process on Friday by appointing Steven.”
The importance to Rangers’ finances of reaching Europe’s premier club tournament was not underplayed by King.
“We are not going to run it to make a profit in the foreseeable future,” he admitted. “I would expect us only to start making a profit when we are back playing Champions League. Until that point, I think we are going to have to continue funding the deficit every single year.”
King, meanwhile, has defended Rangers’ treatment of former manager Graeme Murty who was sacked last week in the aftermath of the record 5-0 Old Firm league defeat at Celtic Park.
“Graeme certainly wasn’t undermined by anything I did,” said King. “My relationship with him remains good.
“Every time we met it was
“I would expect us only to start making a profit when we are back playing Champions League”
DAVE KING
After a fairytale start, Graham Dorrans has seen his first season as a Rangers player turn into something of a horror story.
The midfielder scored twice when he made his debut for his boyhood club in a 2-1 win at Motherwell back in August but has had precious little to savour since.
Dorrans spent five months sidelined by an ankle injury and since his return has been part of the 4-0 and 5-0 drubbings by Celtic in recent weeks which ended Graeme Murty’s managerial tenure.
However, Dorrans has taken a lift from the appointment of Steven Gerrard as the new Ibrox boss. Before the former Liverpool and England captain takes charge next month, the squad he inherits are trying to finish this season on a relatively positive note as they pursue runners-up spot and a Europa League place.
Saturday’s 1-0 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox boosted those ambitions as they go into their last two fixtures, against Aberdeen at Pittodrie tonight and Hibs at Easter Road on Sunday.
“Aberdeen and Hibs drawing nil-nil on Saturday was probably the best result for us,” said Dorrans, pictured.
“It was important we concentrated on winning the game on Saturday. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t pretty, but it was important we got the win regardless of what happened at Pittodrie. We move on to the next one now, it is another big game.
“Last week was probably one of the worst weeks I have ever had to deal with as a footballer. Listen, at Celtic Park we weren’t good enough. We know that. There is no hiding place. But we stood up on Saturday in difficult conditions, battled through it and managed to get a goal at the end.
“That was all that mattered. We knew coming into the game that we had three massive games left. This was the first one that we had to deal with and go and win.
“It has been a difficult season for myself, obviously. Getting the injury and missing a large part of the season has been pretty disappointing for me. I didn’t have a proper preseason either. In that sense, it was difficult. Hopefully we can win these next two games and finish on a high. Getting a Europa League place is massive for this club. We obviously know this season hasn’t been great. It’s important we try to finish second. Hopefully we can do that and get into Europe for the fans.”
Dorrans, who played against Gerrard several times during his time in the English Premier League with West Brom and Norwich, is eagerly anticipating the impact the new manager will make at Rangers.
“A name like that coming in is massive,” he added. “There’s a bit of excitement around the club. In the last couple of weeks it has been all doom and gloom. The news on Friday really lifted the place. “It is never nice to see managers losing their jobs. But when a new manager comes in it is a fresh start for everyone. It is no different from what has happened here. He will come in and have his own ideas and his own players he wants to bring in. Everyone is starting afresh.
“I am excited about having the chance to be able to learn from somebody who has played at the highest level. He is one of the best players of his generation. He is one of the best players I have ever come up against.”
Derek Mcinnes insists Rangers should be embarrassed if Hibernian or his Aberdeen team finish the season by beating them to runners-up spot in the Premiership.
The Dons manager rejected the opportunity to take over the vacant post at Ibrox last December because of the chaos and uncertainty at his former club compared to the stability at his current one.
However, Mcinnes was convinced Rangers still possessed sufficient resources on and off the park to make sure they won the race to be the best of the rest behind seventimes champions Celtic.
Instead, an Aberdeen victory at Pittodrie tonight will end any lingering chance of that happening and Mcinnes believes their opponents’ faces should be as red as the Dons players’ jerseys should that happen.
“It would be more than a bit of an embarrassment for Rangers if they don’t finish second with what they have to play with,” claimed Mcinnes.
“A lot of these players have been there for a while and going on to their fourth manager in 18 months. It’s not just down to the managers, they have a lot of good players there.
“I think with what Rangers have and how they recruited in the January window they should be second but it says a lot for us and for Hibs that we’re still there and battling for second place.
“Neil Lennon said it will feel like winning the league to Hibs and it’s no different for us because we want to do it. It would certainly be a huge disappointment to have gone this close and not finish second now.
“This is a totally new squad we put together last summer so if we can finish second then it would be a good achievement.
“The will is there, we are motivated to do it and the intention is to show we’re good enough tomorrow night. We will certainly enjoy our summer better if we can win this game.”
That’s because Mcinnes is acutely aware that the job would be done by now if they had even managed to win just one of the three previous meetings between the clubs to this point.
Instead,rangers have picked up all nine available so far in this bitterly contested fixture to remain just one point adrift and injury means Aberdeen go into this one without injured winger Gary Mackay-steven.
On the plus side, influential playmaker Kenny Mclean returns from suspension for his final match at Pittodrie before starting a new career in the English Championship with Norwich City in the summer.
The midfielder said: “There wouldn’t be a better way to bow out of Pittodrie, I think, than by beating Rangers. There is no game bigger for us in the league than Rangers at Pittodrie.
“This one can really mean something to us and the fans, the club as a whole, because it could go a long way towards us finishing where we want to be this season. It’s been an excellent three and a half years here so it will be emotional for me but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here at Aberdeen, I’ve grown as a person and improved as a player – and that’s what I wanted, coming here.
“I wanted to take my game to the next level, which I think I have. I’ve set myself up nicely for a new chapter in my career.
“I think I’ve improved every aspect of my game. I hadn’t really matured as a player when I arrived here. My stats and my improvement as a player would show that I’ve changed.
“Now we’re looking to win both of our remaining games and it’s still in our hands to do that, to finish in second place.”
“They should be second but it says alotforusandfor Hibs that we’re still there and battling for second place”
DEREK MCINNES