King should forget about Oldco and just splash the cash...

ALMOST effortlessly, Dave King has emerged as the most divisive figure in Scotti s h football. In comparison, Neil Lennon has begun to look like yesterday’s man.

To Rangers supporters, King is a saviour. To fans of other clubs, he is routinely described as a convicted criminal. Even by the vitriolic standards of the national game, the extremes of opinion are striking.

Press conferences hosted by the Ibrox chairman are becoming blockbuster affairs. The conversation is peppered with enough hand grenades to lay siege to a small city; the fall-out is thermo nuclear.

For journalists, one back-page story usually represents a good day. A half hour in King’ s company is all it takes to land five.

Old rows are rekindled and dormant stories you thought had run their course are resurrected as if from nowhere.

Instance Scott Allan. The midfielder is employed by Celtic now. The bitter transfer battle between his former club Hibernian and Rangers — the first club to bid for his services — looked to have died down. Until, that is, King lit a fuse by claiming the Edinburgh club had actively tried to sell Allan to Rangers first before changing their minds.

It’s hard to conceive of a way in which Hibs officials could be made to look more devious or two-faced. Within hours, Easter Road chief executive Leeann Dempster was issuing denials.

And there we were, back in familiar territory — Rangers supporters hailing Dave King for sticking it up their rivals. Fans of Hibs, Celtic and any other club you care to mention digging out that old quote from Judge Brian Southwood i n South Africa when he branded King a ‘glib and shameless liar’.

The Rangers chairman wasn’t done there. There was one more highly flammable topic he felt the need to address.

King wants to t ake t he Rangers Oldco, wound up in October 2012, out of liquidation and end the constant jibes of opposition fans claiming the old club ‘died’.

To be clear, the Newco/Oldco topic is tedious beyond belief. Dull barely covers it. Yet, to a generation of obsessives and faceless internet attic dwellers, it’s a reason to exist.

The desire to take to the internet — anonymously, of course — and tell the world that Rangers died at least once a day is irresistible.

By saying he wanted to get back to t he ‘ t r aditi onal Rangers’, King offered these people a shaft of light. The opportunity to claim they were right all along.

There i s some honour in King’s belief that the creditors stiffed by the Oldco’s collapse i n October 2012 should be reimbursed.

But, as with so much of what came out on Thursday, the technicalities and details are iffy and open to debate.

King insists the plan is both financially and legally feasible. An insolvency expert contacted by Sportsmail s uggested otherwise.

Such a process has never been done before. It could give former shareholders like Craig Whyte a claim to the assets. Creditors would be due interest on cash owed since 2012.

With BDO still years away from sorting out the entire Oldco mess, chances are the whole idea will slip quietly into the night.

Frankly, t hat’s where it belongs. Rangers have more immediate things with which to concern themselves.

Like becoming a sustainable, winning football team capable of challenging for the Premiership title.

King now believes they are closer to that goal than anyone thought likely.

The credit for that goes to Mark Warburton, the right manager at the right time. An astute, intelligent coach who plucked hungry, enterprising players out of thin air f or buttons.

So long as the team keep winning, King can swat away awkward questions concerning promises of undelivered £30million investments as an irrelevance. And supporters won’t care one bit. They are savouring the chance to concentrate on football again.

But the day is approaching when the ability to compete financially with Celtic will be put to the test. A day when money will have to be found. And spent.

Thanks to season-ticket sales of 35,000, Rangers are well financed until the end of this campaign.

The target is to bring in five more players to launch a Premiership challenge. King says he will spend ‘ whatever it takes’ but has yet to say how or when.

The biggest hand grenade he could drop on Scottish football right now is not the resurrection of Oldco Rangers. It’s a cash investment which might blow rivals out of the water.

Until then, forgive those who take other promises with a pinch of salt.