Dave King: Evening Times

[ian1964 10,486]

DAVE KING reckons it would be beneficial to have non-Rangers fans on the Ibrox board.

Paul Murray and Barry Scott stepped down from the Light Blues top table on Wednesday.

That leaves chairman King alongside Douglas Park, Graeme Park, Alastair Johnston and John Bennet at present.

King admitted he was ‘surprised’ to see Murray, who alongside John Gilligan helped to oust the former regime three years ago, hand in his notice.

And the South Africa-based businessman would only welcome new faces into the boardroom if they can add something to the Gers hierarchy.

He said: “I am very happy with the five we have got at the moment. It is quite a tight board.

“I have spoken to other board members and we are certainly not going to rush out to replace them.

“My view, as I have said previously, is that when we get to the point of bringing in new directors I would prefer genuinely independent directors.

“I think we have got enough supporters on the board so I would rather see independent business people, who are not Rangers aligned, give us a better level of governance.

“As much as we try and practice governance and as much as we have got a strong separation between the holding company board and the football club, which is a different company completely, the fact is that we are all supporters and sometimes it is difficult to disabuse your mind of your supporter hat and try and ignore it.

“Paul has been fantastic and walked this long way with us. He has been there.

“Barry’s resignation wasn’t a surprise because I have got a sense that there are things going on in his life and his business that he needs time to deal with.

“But Paul’s genuinely was a surprise to me. I have not had the chance to really talk it out other than the brief meeting on Saturday.”

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/rangers/16209955.Dave_King___39_surprised__39__to_see_Paul_Murray_step_down_from_Rangers_board/

[ian1964 10,486]

DAVE KING believes Celtic’s dominance of Scottish football is like a ‘pack of cards’ and that it will take just one Premiership title to tip the balance back in Rangers’ favour.

Brendan Rodgers’ side clinched a seventh successive top flight crown with a 5-0 Old Firm win at Parkhead a fortnight ago.

But Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has been tasked with ending Celtic’s monopoly in the top flight after agreeing a four-year deal with the Light Blues.

“We appoint a manager who can win games, with more resources, and we take one league away from Celtic,” King said when asked how the Old Firm gap can be closed.

“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.

“It depends on if they decide to invest or how well they invest. One would expect a reaction from Celtic to the appointment of Steven - we will have to wait and see what it is.

“With all Celtic’s resources they are not a million points away from Aberdeen or Hibs. They 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. There are opportunities there.”

Chairman King and his fellow investors will continue to provide funds in the coming months as Gerrard gets set to overhaul his Ibrox squad ahead of the new campaign.

But the South Africa-based businessman admits Rangers will not be able to post a profit until they are back playing Champions League football.

Rodgers has taken Celtic into the group stages in the last two seasons but King is unfazed by the difficult task of returning Rangers to the top table of the European game.

He said: “If it’s hard then it’s harder for both of us. We don’t have to guarantee it, we have to narrow the gap against Celtic.

“So if Celtic are not getting it 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 10 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.”

After the failed appointments of Mark Warburton and Pedro Caixinha in recent years, Rangers can’t afford another costly managerial reign.

And King reckons the Gers can take heart from the way Martin O’Neill’s side turned the tables at the start of the century.

He said: “The question was that with Celtic’s resources does it put you beyond them forever then the answer is clearly no.

“We have seen the cycle. I was with Rangers when we thought Celtic would never catch up - never in a hundred years.

“I think it lasted 11 minutes of the next game we played against them. Dick Advocaat said they would never, ever catch up.

“But 11 minutes into the next game they caught up and then went past us because Martin O’Neill came in and figured out a different way to do it.

“You need the right management structure to do it. At the moment we’ve gone more top heavy on management because we have invested in the squad and struggled with stability in the manager’s office.

"We’ve gone the other way. We have now gone very, very strong in the management squad.”

[ian1964 10,486]

DAVE KING insists Graeme Murty was not treated ‘shabbily’ by Rangers this season.

The 43-year-old was relieved of his first team duties last week, just hours after the Light Blues crashed to a 5-0 defeat that saw Celtic win the title.

Jimmy Nicholl and Jonatan Johansson were in the dugout on Saturday as Kilmarnock were beaten at Ibrox and will take the team against Aberdeen and Hibernian.

The likes of Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon offered words of support to Murty.

And on Friday Rangers announced Steven Gerrard had won the race to be boss next term.

King said: “He (Murty) knew his starting position was temporary and would remain temporary.

“He was never expecting to get the job even if he might have hoped to. He certainly wasn’t treated shabbily by the club and we are honouring every obligation to him.

“You are getting outside influences suggesting that but it’s not an internal issue.

“As far as what went on inside with some of the senior players, do I think he was treated shabbily?

“Not by the club but I think some of his senior players didn’t show him the level of respect for what he was doing for the club at a very, very difficult time.

“He wasn’t coming in as a complete, accomplished manager, he was coming in to do us a favour and I think he was undermined partly by some of his own senior players.

“Not by the board, we continue to support him, the relationship still remains strong and he is most welcome to come back into his old position which we have kept available for him.”

[ian1964 10,486]

DAVE KING, the Rangers chairman, has dismissed his ongoing battle with the Takeover Panel an ‘irrelevance’ as he pushes ahead with plans for an Ibrox share issue.

King was ordered to make an £11million offer to shareholders in Rangers International Football Club plc after being found to have breached ‘concert party’ rules during his rise to power in 2015.

Financial watchdogs at the Takeover Panel launched legal action after the South Africa-based businessman failed to provide ‘code-compliant’ proof he had the funds to complete the transaction.

King said: “They were placed into a trust account, proof of funds given to them. Then about two weeks ago the Takeover Panel approached me again and said they are unhappy now with the funds being held in South Africa and they would like them relocated into the UK to be held in a UK bank account in sterling.

“I said: ‘I am happy to do that’. But as you know I don’t have facilities in the UK, I would have to open a bank account, which I have agreed to do. I said: ‘That now requires an extension of the offer period’. I can’t get the money into the UK, open bank accounts, do the various KYC things you have to do with the banks in time to make the deadline.

“They didn’t grant the extension. That is where we are stuck right now. I have gone back to them and said: ‘I am going to take that under review because this is something you only asked for two weeks ago’.

“I am a South African resident, but my business interests are not in the UK therefore I do have to open bank accounts and that does take time. So that is really where we are right now. They have got proof of funds in Rands in South Africa, but they want it relocated to the UK. That is where we are at the moment.”

King was deemed to have acted ‘in concert’ with the Three Bears - Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor - as he removed the former Ibrox regime from power three years ago.

It was ruled that he must make an offer at 20p per share to his fellow investors.

But the Gers chairman believes it is not an issue for his fellow directors and that nobody will accept his bid.

King said: “Nobody [on the board] has even discussed it. If it wasn’t for you guys, we wouldn’t be talking about this. It has got nothing to do with the football club and, quite frankly, it has nothing to do with most people but I am answering the questions because we are here.

“For me, it is an irrelevance quite frankly.

“I think pretty much [nobody will accept]. Nothing. The offer will not go through. It is not going to happen.

“There has to be a level of acceptance. It has no chance of being accepted.

“The offer is a technical thing that I have to do to comply with and I am doing my best to do it within the circumstances we have got.

“At the end of the day, it will mean nothing. It will not happen. It is a process we have to go through.

“It is going to have to be 50 per cent of the non-concert party shareholders so you need the Easdales, all the Beaufort Nominees, the Blue Pitches, the Margaritas, to sell at 20p and they are not going to do that.”

The battle with the Takeover Panel is not the only financial issue that King is dealing with at present as Rangers get set to launch a share issue ‘immediately’.

Some of the soft loans - totalling around £17million - from investors will be converted to equity as part of the deal, while Club 1872 are bidding to raise seven figures to allow them to potentially up their 10.71 per cent stake.

Rangers appointed Steven Gerrard as their manager last week and funds will be made available to him to add to his squad this summer.

King said:”We’re going one-for-one on this specific issue.

“We’ll be looking at just over £16m. Right now it’s £6m and £10 in loans but we might go £8m and £8m.

“If the player plan goes the other way we might do it the other way around.

“We’ve not yet made our final decision but it won’t be less than £6m new cash.”

Results for the 12 months to November 2017 showed RIFC plc made a loss of £6.7million for the year.

King confirmed that the business will continue to operate at a deficit as funds are injected to allow the Light Blues to challenge Celtic in the Premiership.

Glasgow-born King has pledged to continue backing his boyhood heroes and has played down the chances of new money coming into Ibrox.

He said: “At this stage there is nothing external other than existing shareholders and existing investors. We’re not talking to anyone new who’s not there already.”

King previously ploughed £20million into Rangers during Sir David Murray’s Ibrox reign but left the board following the sale of the club to Craig Whyte.

When asked about the possibility of Murray returning and investing again, King said: “Zero percent would be a bit on the high side.It’s more than unlikely.”

Earlier this year, Rangers announced they had secured banking facilities for the first time since Whyte’s ill-fated tenure at Ibrox.

A £3million deal was struck with Close Brothers and the loan was secured against key assets Edmiston House and the Albion car park at Ibrox.

Supporters had questioned why Rangers required the facility whilst money was coming from wealthy supporters but King has hailed the deal as an important step forward for the Light Blues.

He said: “It’s our single greatest achievement. To me, the best thing we did was getting that Close facility.

“I think that was huge for this club, that we could go actually go out into the market place and finally get a third party to actually give us that facility.

“I think that was enormous for the normalisation of this club.”

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/rangers/16209812.Dave_King__Takeover_Panel_issue_is_an___39_irrelevance__39__as_Rangers_get_set_for_share_issue/

[Gonzo79 13,875]

King needs to get on with the job and forget the charade.  We've had enough empty rhetoric.

 

PC was a bad gamble.  Gerrard had better not be.  

[der Berliner 3,327]

Rangers Q&A: Dave King on Gerrard, transfer budgets and his Ibrox investment

 

THE lines between football and finance are becoming increasingly blurred these days and that is certainly the case at Rangers. As they say, money talks.

Chairman Dave King covered everything from the Takeover Panel to the share issue, from the resignation of two directors to the appointment of Steven Gerrard, and everything in between, at a media briefing on Monday morning.

Here, King talks matters on the field and off it and where Rangers are heading under his stewardship and guidance of Gerrard.

 

WHAT COMMITMENT HAVE YOU GIVEN TO STEVEN GERRARD IN TERMS OF REBUILDING THE TEAM?

DK: We have given a commitment that we will continue to invest in the squad and we will be a net investor still. We will provide additional net funds to him.

 

AND WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

DK: Steven and Mark (Allen) will tell us that because it depends how many players Steven wants to keep. We haven’t even discussed this. It’s not something he discussed with me. That’s something he would discuss with Mark and then he would come back to the board and say, ‘We’d like him…’

It depends on whether you transfer players out, whether you get them away from a wages point of view. So they’re going to have to figure that out and then come back and say, ‘This is our player plan.’ Right now, we don’t have a player plan because Steven hasn’t looked at it.

 

ARE YOU THINKING OF INCREASING YOUR OWN INVESTMENT?

DK: I have to do that. I’ve already done that in advance of next season. One of the factors involved is getting our licence and because we run a deficit deliberately, we’ve always got to satisfy the licensing authorities – the SFA and UEFA – that we have sufficient funds to fund our deficit. We’ve already had to give cash guarantees in advance of next season. Whether we raise money from the rights issue or not, I’m in for the money because right now I’m underpinning the cash.

If there wasn’t a rights issue my money would go into the club. If there is a rights issue, less of my mine will go in. The club is fully funded for the next season. Every single club goes through the same process and, I repeat, because we are consciously and deliberately running at a loss, you’ve got to let the authorities know that you can fund the loss.

 

SINCE YOU CAME IN, YOU HAVE BEEN FIREFIGHTING VARIOUS ISSUES BUT THERE IS AN ACCUSATION THAT THERE DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE A CLEAR STRATEGY. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THAT?

DK: The real issue there is whether we debate these things in public. If anyone looks at what we have done over the past couple of years, we have been completely consistent.

I don’t think there is a single thing we said we’d do that we haven’t done. There have been accusations of not putting money in. We have put in a lot more than we said we would put in. We continue to do the right things. The strategies have been clear.

There is a preference for the media and a very small group of supporters to debate these things in public. We are not going to do that. Our strategies around managers have been very clear. We need managers that can win games.

 

WHEN WILL RANGERS RETURN TO PROFITABILITY?

DK: Not in the foreseeable future. Because we are not going to run it to make a profit in the foreseeable future.

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.

 

YOU SAID YOU HAVE GIVEN CASH GUARANTEES FOR NEXT SEASON. IS THAT UNUSUAL AND HOW MUCH HAVE YOU HAD TO GUARANTEE?

DK: It’s not unusual in the sense that every club has to put a funding plan, you have to put your business plan for the next season to the authorities to get your SFA and UEFA licences. Every club does it. It’s known that we are running at a loss so the automatic question is ‘you’ve got a plan to run a loss, where is the money going to come from’.

And we say we’re going to have a rights issue and they say ok what if it doesn’t happen, we need to know the cash is there, so I provided the cash guarantees as I did with the Takeover Panel on the understanding that my guarantees will be drawn down if there is not a rights issue and if there is an issue those guarantees will come back to me. So basically I am funding it until such time as the other funds come into play, which is fine.

 

YOU SAID THAT UNTIL THERE WON’T BE PROFITABILTY UNTIL YOU ARE BACK INTO THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, BUT WOULD THAT NOT BE ENHANCED BY THINGS LIKE THE NEW RETAIL DEALS, KIT DEALS?

DK: What that has done is helped us reduce the deficit. The amount of money we’re having to fund is reduced by the better retail deals and of course it depends on transfer activity. Are we net buyers or net sellers? What happens, we’ll see. But basically it’s very, very helpful to us that the deficit we are funding becomes smaller because of these other revenue streams like the retail deals.

 

YOU COULD HAVE WIPED OUT A LOT OF THE LOANS BY SELLING ALFREDO MORELOS IN JANUARY. CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY YOU CHOSE NOT TO SELL HIM AT THAT TIME?

DK: There were two reasons. One is we wouldn’t have wiped out the loans in any event because the understanding with the football management team is that if we sell players they get the money back to spend, so it was never going to be used to repay the loans. There is no intention of repaying the loans, it’s not going to happen, no loans will be repaid, so that wouldn’t have helped us in that regard. And secondly the manager made a decision not to sell him, it was completely up to the manager.

He knew that we could have sold the player but for Graeme’s own targets for what he wanted to do for the second half of the season if Morelos went out he couldn’t bring another player in and he said ‘I would rather have the player, if you’re not putting me under pressure to get the money I would rather keep the player’ and we said there’s no pressure, you make a football decision.

 

THERE ARE SEVERAL PLAYERS COSTING QUITE A BIT THAT AREN’T CONTRIBUTING AT ALL. IS THERE A NEED TO GET THEM OUT BEFORE YOU CAN BRING PLAYERS IN?

DK: There’s not a need because we have to win games. We’re certainly not going to say to the management team, ‘You can’t get these players in until you get these guys out.’ Overall, it’s better if you balance the books but we’re not going to restrict it.

It’s more important who we get in but we need to get the balance of getting in and getting out. However, we’re not going to say, ‘This guy we can’t get away and so we’re not going to replace him’. we’re hot going to do that and be that restrictive.

 

WHAT IS THE TOTAL OF YOUR COMMITMENTS TO RANGERS SO FAR?

DK: In terms of commitments in cash, I am probably in for a bit over £30m at the moment. I don’t know where it’s going to go to. It depends how well Steven does next year.

 

WHEN YOU SEE WHERE RANGERS ARE AT PRESENT, DO YOU SEE THAT AS £30MILLION WELL SPENT?

DK: I look at where we are and certainly off the pitch there’s been huge progress. We wouldn’t have got Steven Gerrard if there wasn’t huge progress off the pitch.

The area where it’s not working well is on the pitch. That’s something we have to deal with. We have made managerial appointments that didn’t work out, but what do you do? We were under pressure to make an appointment and didn’t see an immediate appointment we felt was appropriate so we waited for months.

We think that was the right thing to do and it’s been justified with the appointment that we’ve made. It would have been difficult if it wasn’t but you make your decision and you have to see it through. And we remain very, very consistent with what we’re going to do with the club.

We will come back, we will win titles. There are set-backs, of course there are set-backs, but it’s our job as a board to deal with the set-backs and not be overly influenced by the noise level coming from the media and small minority of supporters who are just vociferous on these issues.

I mean, if we got to the Champions League final and lost it we’d be criticised for lack of ambition for not winning it. It’s the way supporters are but we are realistic from the board’s point of view and carrying on, despite the set-backs we’ve had. We analyse it and keep moving on.

 

IS THAT £30MILLION EXCLUSIVE FROM OTHER MONEY THAT’S SET ASIDE?

DK: Yes. It’s cash guarantees that would be less if we could get other investors in. Basically we’re in a situation where I am saying ‘if we really have to do something and there’s a set-back and we need money then I’m underpinning it.’ I am in that position where I can at least provide the cash guarantees that I have to.

But I’m doing it on the hope that it’s not drawn on. That’s my preference, I’d rather other people put the money in right now to at least make progress. But I’m the Bank of First Resort, hopefully not Last Resort.

 

THERE MUST BE A LIMIT TO WHAT STEVEN CAN GET IN TERMS OF SPENDING POWER?

DK: It’s not like when Souness came in; we’re not going to sign the England captain, the England goalkeeper and the like. There is a limit to what any manager gets. There is a limit to what Real Madrid get to spend. There is always a limit.

But the question is does he, in discussions with us, look at the resources he’ll get to do the job and believe in what we’ve committed to that? He’s not going to come to us and ask us to buy Suarez. We understand where we are and we’re we’re not. But in terms of what he thinks needs to be done to the squad - to challenge and to win games and get three points every week - then we’ve committed to support that with the necessary funds.

What that will be depends on the player plan when he sits down with Mark Allen. He’ll say ‘I want these guys out, I’ll get nothing for them, I want to free up the wages whole this other player might get us a transfer fee.’ They’ll come up with a whole plan and then say ‘this is what we need from the close season.’ We’ll then say fine, approve it and provide the funds.

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/rangers/16209881.Rangers_Q_A__Dave_King_on_Gerrard__transfer_budgets_and_his_Ibrox_investment/

[der Berliner 3,327]

BTW, there is another even longer Q&A also, can be read on FF here https://www.followfollow.com/forum/threads/dave-king-q-and-a.29499/

[917 191]

I suppose he is just being honest, but basically accepting Celtic will dominate for the next few years won’t sell season tickets. There is no new money coming in. Posters & threads continuing to insist this based on nothing should be chopped.

 

Stevie G must actually be insane if he thinks he can beat Celtic while spending half their wage budget. Does he actually think he will get the Liverpool top job after finishing 2nd in the SPL 3 years in a row? Nobody south of the border would be impressed by that. 

 

Doesnt explain why Paul Murray left though, but worrying that King never even spoke to him or expected his resignation. Or maybe it’s good news, no doubt the next ITK (ie complete fabrication) poster will be claiming he left to join a new takeover bid by Sheik Monsour..

[ranger_syntax 3,848]

9 hours ago, der Berliner said:

BTW, there is another even longer Q&A also, can be read on FF here https://www.followfollow.com/forum/threads/dave-king-q-and-a.29499/

Where did that come from though?

[ranger_syntax 3,848]

8 hours ago, 917 said:

I suppose he is just being honest, but basically accepting Celtic will dominate for the next few years won’t sell season tickets. There is no new money coming in. Posters & threads continuing to insist this based on nothing should be chopped.

 

Stevie G must actually be insane if he thinks he can beat Celtic while spending half their wage budget. Does he actually think he will get the Liverpool top job after finishing 2nd in the SPL 3 years in a row? Nobody south of the border would be impressed by that. 

 

Doesnt explain why Paul Murray left though, but worrying that King never even spoke to him or expected his resignation. Or maybe it’s good news, no doubt the next ITK (ie complete fabrication) poster will be claiming he left to join a new takeover bid by Sheik Monsour..

Totally agree about people circulating tall tales about investment.

 

Disagree about Gerrard's mental state.