King happy to repay true Blues for their loyalty with new Ashley deal
which I think is there already. We need to manage and run the club on the basis that we can rely regularly on having Europa League income and regard Champions League as a bonus.
“We used to run the club on a Champions League budget and it was a problem if we only got into the Europa League. We can’t make that mistake again.
“If we have normalised retail bringing x amount per year and it’s reliable and seasonal, with new kit launches and Christmas allowing us to plan cashflow-wise and then have regular European income, we can have a cost structure which supports that.
“Once we’re in balance, that’s the time we must move away from external investments and say the club must balance its own books.”
His relief at getting a revised deal with Ashley over the line has been well documented over the past 48 hours.
But as he considered the implications later, he insisted getting it done wasn’t a credibility issue with the Rangers fans. Nor was it a deal- breaker in terms of their belief in his leadership.
Asked if he felt fans trusted him, he said: “I’d say completely. I’ve never had a sense otherwise. Ever. Not even remotely.
“The supporters will judge that but even if we couldn’t do it, I don’t know if it was necessarily a credibility issue.
“It’s an area where I guess the supporters at the time of regime change put their trust in a group of people and part of that trust was believing we could achieve this sort of thing.
“It’s good to have done it. It would’ve been very disappointing had we let them down.”
King was keen to stress the distinction between those he considered the club’s supporters, and those he considers ‘ fans’.
He said: “There’s a difference. We had 1,300 supporters in a room in Las Vegas earlier this months (for the North American Rangers Supports Association convention). It almost awes you when you stand up there and talk to them.
“You understand they are all like-minded and they are all there for the love of the club.
“What I said to them is that with Rangers particularly with the media you get the comment that I am away in South Africa and ‘ the suppor ters’ a re complaining I’m not there at the games’, as if Pedro should be looking up to me and asking what he should be doing at half-time.
“It was more important to me that I should spend thousands of hours sorting out stuff like this instead of going to games.
“Flying into London for legal issues, sometimes flying in the morning and out at night to deal with my other business. I was letting my family down.
“The supporters get that. The fans don’t all get that. And I made the differential that what I am doing is for the supporters.
“All supporters are fans but not all fans are supporters. You’ve got Rangers fans who will criticise the manager after the first game.
“And they’ll tweet and they’ll blog and they’ll insult. They’ll use language that a supporter would never use about their club.
“I’m in it for the supporters, the 50,000 who turned up to give us the biggest crowd of the day for our f irst game in the Third Division. I have no doubt they are with us in what we are doing.
“I look at the season ticket numbers again. Last year was a modest season – we fell way short of what we wanted to do. But the supporters are there again, they are supporting the club and what we are doing.
“They’re not coming to me and asking, ‘Where is the £30 million?’ As I said to them, imagine the reaction if we’d said to Mark Warburton, ‘Here’s £12m, go and spend it’. Where would we be?
“I’d also like to think they’re appreciative we’ve been able to deliver this deal for them because it’s a question I’m asked all the time. When can we start buying shirts and have a sea of blue at Ibrox? Now we can get that back.”