NEW KING CUTS TO THE CHASE
He will provide half of £20m initial funding Nomad is set to be appointed immediately
JUST after 6pm l ast night, Dave King landed at Glasgow Airport to complete the process of ousting the current board and seizing control of Rangers.
Hours earlier, boardroom foe Derek Llambias, clinging to his post as chief executive, urged reporters to ask King how much money he is putting in and where the club’s new Nomad is.
Here, in a wide-ranging interview, the former Ibrox director provides answers to the questions supporters — and Llambias — are asking ahead of today’s critical General Meeting at Ibrox:
DO YOU HAVE THE MONEY TO TURN RANGERS AROUND?
‘I will provide the funds 50/50 with other investors to take this club forward again. It’s difficult to say how much. I would think £20million in the short term.
‘I am concerned about some of the comments I have heard more recently that there are other areas of the club where money needs spent on as well, but it will probably be north of £20m in the short to medium term.’
WILL YOU FUND RANGERS ON YOUR OWN?
‘Not at all. There are many people who could do it. I’ve made clear previously if anyone else was willing to I would welcome that — even Mike Ashley.
‘ If Mike Ashley was to sell Newcastle and put £300m into Rangers, I would donate my shares to him.
‘But he is not going to do that. We have seen over the years a lot of groups and attempts but it hasn’t happened, so I decided it was time to do it.’
WHAT KIND OF FUNDING IS NECESSARY?
‘The proposal I put to the board in November was that I would take on 50 per cent of the funding and other individuals would provide the other 50 per cent, with the Paul Murrays, George Lethams, Brian Kennedys, and Douglas Parks coming in.
‘We would be looking at a 50/50 split as I don’t see me carrying the sole burden.
‘Initially, we were looking at £1620m over the next couple of years but right now I think it will be higher.
‘I don’t think we will be going to the City at this point. It would be very difficult given the history of Rangers’ performance in the stock market to go to the City and ask people to produce funds from other people’s money.
‘Charles Green did a marvellous job of selling it to the City but I don’t believe a football club should be bringing other people’s money into it.
‘It should be people like myself, who are willing to invest while understanding the risk.
‘Quite frankly, I am standing here willing to invest again having lost £ 20m. I don’t think I will get my money back again this time either.’
WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST PRIORITIES?
‘I will need to speak to the staff and give them some sense of s t abili t y. That will be very important as they have not had that for the last couple of years.
‘After that, there are a number of things we will have to do over the next couple of months because the club is in bad shape.
‘It depends what it means by turning the club round. Stage one, and in a very short period of time, has got to have Rangers as at least the No 2 club in Scotland, which they clearly are not at the moment.
‘That can happen very quickly. Thereafter, financially, the gap between ourselves and Celtic will take a longer period of time.
‘Being a solid No 2 and back into the Europa League is something I will imagine happens quite quickly.’
DEREK LLAMBIAS SAYS TO ASK YOU WHERE THE CLUB’S NEW NOMINATED ADVISOR IS AND WHO?
‘I was told about the comments from Derek Llambias asking where the money was and mentioning the nomad. I think we have addressed the money issue.
‘ Yes, the shares are under suspension but it’s not my nomad. The club has to appoint the nomad and Llambias should understand that. He is confusing us with the club.
‘All I have done in advance of changing the board is ensure there is another nomad willing to come in. But the club has to appoint them.
‘The nomad I have spoken to is doing the due diligence on the directors coming into the club, but the key component of any nomad is the financial affairs of the club itself.
‘I will be able to give no more input at the moment than what you read in the newspapers.
‘If we succeed tomorrow, as we expect to do, a nomad will be appointed i mmediately. That process will happen in a day or so.’
ARE YOU IN A POSITION TO APPOINT A NOMAD NEXT WEEK OR THE WEEK AFTER?
‘No, because they have to do due diligence and I have been able to give them no comfort. Individuals are not the important part from the nomad’s point of view.
‘The important thing for a nomad is the state of the club and there are concerns about being involved with Rangers Football Club.
‘ It hasn’t been good f or the reputations of nomads they have had to date.
‘The Nomad I am talking to is a company which, historically, has good relationships in other areas.
‘I have given them the names of directors I think will come on the board both now and later. But that’s not the key.
‘When they look under the boot of Rangers Football Club, what are they going to see? That’s the area I’ve not been able to reassure them on.
‘That process can only happen after we get control of the board.’
DO YOU PLAN TO MEET THE SFA WHILE YOU ARE IN SCOTLAND?
‘We will initiate the process because the SFA say it has to come from the club. The club has to say after tomorrow: “We now want Dave King to come in as non-executive chairman”.
‘My understanding is that will take four or five weeks and a lot of it will be representations and interviews.
‘I will make it clear to them that I will do whatever it takes to facilitate the process.’
WILL YOU BE THE CHAIRMAN OF RANGERS EVENTUALLY?
‘Definitely. I just felt the whole fit-and-proper issue has been raised with me continually and if I am going to take the club forward with a level of governance and transparency, then it has to start with me. I think it’s right I sit back for a couple of weeks to let the regulators do their fit-and-proper tests.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THE FANS RIGHT NOW?
‘ The message to the f ans is tomorrow is a turning point, not only in the history of the club but in the future of the club.
‘This is a chance to get rid of a very difficult couple of years.
‘I grew up as a kid with Celtic winning the European Cup in 1967 and the nine-in-a-row years. That seemed like a desperate time for the fans but it must have felt far more desperate to have lived through the last couple of years.
‘This is genuinely a chance to get the club going forward.
‘ We offer t r ansparency and accountability, and at least give fans a road forward. It might be tough, it might be long, but we know where we are going.
‘I know the difficulties people have had over the last couple of years, with the changes in direction — or complete lack of direction.
‘The issue is taking the club forward in the next couple of years.
‘The fans have to come back and the club has to be more successful.
‘ We have to s t art getting European income.
‘It’s not just a question of plugging a hole over the next couple of weeks — that’s the easy part.
‘The hard part over the next couple of years is getting Rangers back to a point where it is commercially sustainable with additional funds and can then get back to competing with Celtic.’
KENNY McDOWALL SAYS IT WILL TAKE FIVE YEARS FOR THE CLUB TO REBUILD THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMPETE?
‘Look, I like what he said in the sense he was setting expectations which might be in our favour; for the fans not to get too excited too quickly. ‘But do I believe it’s five years? No. ‘I believe we will invest in our squad and I think it is absolutely imperative that in Rangers’ first season back in the Premier League, we finish at least second.
DAVE King last night insisted Rangers can cope should Mike Ashley immediately call in the £10million he has loaned the club.
Arriving in glasgow from South Africa, via London, to complete his ibrox coup, King expects to remove the newcastle owner’s board appointees Derek Llambias and Barry Leach at a general meeting at ibrox today.
And, after accusing Llambias and Leach of ‘extortion’ by demanding a year’s salary to call off the meeting and go quietly, King insisted there will be no deals made with the outgoing board. Even if that means Ashley, who has loaned the club £5m with a further £5m in the process of being drawn down, demanding his cash back.
‘i have not seen the nature of the loans,’ King told Sportsmail. ‘That may be possible, it may not. But again, we have indicated we are willing to put loans in, so i don’t regard the loans as being an issue.
‘Rangers as a football club can afford the loans from anyone else.
‘With the asset base it has got and the fanbase, if we get them all back into the club, a £5m or £10m debt is very, very affordable for Rangers.
‘When i was on the board previously, we had £35m of bank debt and potentially