Dave King has warned that Sevco need £50m to survive.
The man described as a glib and shameless liar by a South African judge made a whistle-stop tour to the UK earlier this month during which he drew up plans to rescue the club on the brink of administration.
King has refused to buy any shares but is ready to provide Ally McCoist with a £5m transfer warchest to take on Dumbarton, Cowdenbeath and Raith Rovers in next season’s SPFL Championship warning that he fears that the current squad may not be good enough.
In his latest round of media interviews King pledges: “My view of what it will take to make Rangers competitive again is bottom end £30m but probably £50m over the next four years.
“From the discussions I have to date I think there are other people who would come with me but I would say I would probably have to put in £30m of the £50m over the period of time. And I could probably get other people to put in £20m.
“Would I be willing to invest £30m despite what happened previously? Of course. Sure.”
How to invest £50m into a public limited company is unclear- especially one that is losing £1m per month and which has exhausted the £22m raised in December 2012.
Unless the current shareholders vote to dilute their own shareholding King’s plans will be blocked. Having watched share values crash from 70p to under 30p in 15 months it’s unlikely that there will be a rush of investors willing to throw their money at a club whose key assets, Ibrox Stadium and Murray Park are subject to a claim from Sevco 5088.
Undeterred by Stock Market regulations King has his plan in place designed to topple Celtic.
“As things stand at the moment with the club, and from the terms of the money that has been borrowed from Laxey Partners, it’s clear there is financial distress,” the man from Castlemilk added.
“You have to invest quite a bit in the current squad ahead of getting to the top division. That would be in the hope it could be a relatively seamless process.
“I would think Ally needs a minimum of £5m for next season. No disrespect to the current squad, they have won League One by a mile and done very well but that squad might not win the league next year. Hearts might be there and other strong clubs.
“If we want it to be a seamless process to make sure we not only win next year but have a squad that can begin to compete, then I think Ally needs a minimum of £5m in wages and then a very big chunk the following year to compete with Celtic.”
The much acclaimed 120 day review of the club’s finances is expected to be announced next month by Graham Wallace, who used to work for Manchester City. So far Sevco have failed to lodge their interim accounts for the period to 31 December 2013 with Companies House, the accounts should have been published by 1 March.
