Dave King insists Rangers new US investors will lead the club back to the top of Scottish football. The former chairman was the key figure who initiated talks with US health insurance tycoon Andrew Cavenagh and the 49ers Enterprises, before selling his entire shareholding to the consortium that took control at Ibrox on Friday.
King has revealed to Sky Sports News that he had also been in discussions with a group from Saudi Arabia – but was keen to get the deal with Cavenagh and co done. Purdy replaces Koppen at Rangers with new boss confirmed in coming daysRangers owners in-tray: New manager, squad rebuild, Ibrox upgrades and moreGerrard will not be next Rangers manager – so who remains in the mix?Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺Eighty per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky SportsThe American consortium now holds a 51 per cent stake in the club and has announced plans to plough an additional £20m into the club as Rangers bid to catch Celtic, who finished 17 points clear at the top last season and won a fourth consecutive top-flight title.
Rangers are also searching for a new boss, who should be appointed in the coming days, with King confident the new owners will get that decision correct. Heres what the former Ibrox director and largest single shareholder told Sky Sports News.
.. Why Cavenagh and the 49ers? This group of investors I believe 100 per cent are right for the club and Im saying that now as a supporter. I am optimistic about the future, I think its someone that the supporters can get behind.
I wouldnt be saying this otherwise to the supporters, I truly, truly believe the club is in the right hands. I think this decision was the right decision, otherwise I certainly wouldnt have supported it and endorsed it myself, and I do believe were now going to get the club back to the top of football in Scotland.
How long will it take? Im not too sure, but I dont think too long. It wont be immediate, but I do think itll be done in a sustainable way so that when were back, we will stay back, and thats not what happened after 55, we got back, but we didnt stay there.
This time weve got to get back and stay, and I think this new investor group will deliver that, Im really, really confident about that. Were there other options? I was in discussions with a Saudi group.
At a fairly early stage, Id satisfied myself they had the funds. But the question then was, would they be the right owners for Rangers Football Club? Would they be acceptable to supporters, in my view? And did they have the, lets say, knowledge and expertise to take the football club forward? They had the money.
But what they didnt have was the track record of investing in football clubs. So I was still engaged with them at the earlier stages of what the terms of a financial deal might look like and how it would work.
When I got a phone call from [ex-Rangers director] Paul Murray, he said Dave, I know youre talking to people at the moment, but Ive got someone who I think you should be talking to. After a chat or two with Paul, I was introduced to Andrew Cavenagh and where that worked particularly well is I ended up with the blend of both things I felt that were outstanding.
If you look at any successful football club, there are really three key pillars to it. One is your supporters and the one thing about Rangers Football Club is youve always got your supporters through good times and bad times.
Get Sky Sports on WhatsApp | Download the Sky Sports appTransfer Centre LIVE! | Paper TalkThe second one was your commercial football plan, how youre actually going to run the club, because the supporters bums on seats and even selling replica kits is not enough to fund a major football club.
You need strong commercial and a total football plan around your transfer policies and incomings and outgoings. And then, of course, you need a financial plan to back that. You cant do all of that without the funding behind it.
So you have to get them together. What I liked about my initial chat with Andrew and then my subsequent chat when Paraag [Marathe] and the 49ers became more involved as part of the consortium, that kind of blended option, where I felt that they understood sport.
They understood the commercial aspects. Theyve done a fantastic job. So I felt I had this kind of perfect combination. They had the financial muscle that we need both now and in the coming years, because things dont always go well and you need to be able to top up from time to time.
And they had the footballing and the general sports commercial knowledge and expertise. So my main focus from that point on was working with the group but trying to keep the Saudis in the background, just in case this deal for any reason didnt come to fruition.
How do you feel about the managerial search? When you bring in a new manager, Id refer to the Glasgow environment. Some people think thats a little bit unfair, but certainly in my experience from Mark Warburton and others who all thought they got the Glasgow thing – until you get to Glasgow, you dont get the Glasgow thing.
Even someone like Steven [Gerrard] that came from Liverpool, where you think is closer to the Glasgow thing. You can try and think you understand it, and you can talk to people whove been there before, but until you actually get in there, you dont really get it.
So I think thats the factor that I would be wary of. I think that the consortium will consider about bringing in a European manager, whos maybe got no experience of Scottish football at all, thats going to go from Champions League qualifiers to the north of Scotland in a drab, wet, windy, horrible Wednesday evening and try and motivate your players and get results out of them.
I think that is a factor for me, but its not something that the 49ers are not aware of. What is next for Rangers? There will be some cleaning up of the balance sheet and the debt and making sure that the balance sheet is more stable.
Then Im hoping – and what Im expecting – to see is a commitment to a funding plan that will see a significant investment in improving the squad in this window, but will also keep some of the funds available for the next couple of windows to come.
Im hoping and expecting that the consortium will continue with the discussions that weve had, which is theres an understanding that there will have to be sustained investment over a number of windows.
If the idea is not only to win, but to win consistently, which I think is the plan, then we need that consistency of investment as well. So I do think weve got the right people, weve got the right business experience.
I think its a good chance for the club that its not a supporter-led board. There are some benefits to that, when you have to go cap in hand for money, theres an emotional tug to get people to give you money when you need it.
But against that, theres almost a supporter mentality when one gets caught up in a series of bad results, its a bit fire the board, fire the manager. Youre dealing with 100 per cent of supporters, but it tends to be two or three per cent that dominate the media, and one tends to react to the two or three per cent of the noisier section of that spectrum of supporters.
So I think having people who are not completely depressed if you lose at home to a team thats bottom end of the table, and it doesnt change their view of the world, I think is a good thing for the club going forward in terms of stability.
Certainly, what I think is necessary for new owners to take the club forward in this new world of modern football. Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season From next season, Sky Sports Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports
