As he wakes up in the sunshine of South Africa Dave King would rather forget his comments while in exile from the blue room of dignity.
The Rangers fanatic couldn’t be bothered jetting in for yesterday’s derby match or to meet his board in person to discuss plans for the January transfer window.
After twenty months in charge it’s difficult to see any area of the club that has progressed other than the accumulation of debt through soft loans.
The dream of the journey was to put Celtic in their place, just last week John Gilligan was articulating those very views, but the reality has been brutal. Three defeats in which they’ve been outplayed in every area of the park.
How many of Mark Warburton’s squad would make it onto the bench at Celtic?
How many of Warbo’s squad will ever win an SPFL Premier League medal?
In exile Mr King was quick to fire off statements, offering hope to the deluded that the good old days of the free spending Murray days can return with trophies to match.
Back in January 2014 former Chief Executive Graham Wallace was attempting to bring some reality to Sevco, closing the gap between outgoings and income.
Alastair McCoist didn’t fancy that idea, it might have helped the club but would have exposed his shortcomings in the dug out.
The shock horror message reached King in South Africa. In a Q and A with the Daily Mail he spelt out the ramifications of living within their means, which rings uncannily true to life in 2017 as Mr King enters his third year pulling the strings in the blue room.
“If we cut the club back to a level that’s just enough to win the League One or the Championship then that’s fine but the gap between ourselves and Celtic when we get to the Premiership will be obvious,” the South African based criminal stated.
“And it will render Rangers a small club in SPL terms for a longer period of time than need be.
“I’m concerned that because the shareholders there at the moment don’t have the appetite or willingness to invest ahead of getting back to the top league we will be really short in terms of the financial and on-field strength.
“No one wants to see Rangers finishing sixth or something like that. That would be absolutely horrendous. And certainly contrary to what I would want to do with the club.”
Later on he added: “One would have thought that that amount of money for a club operating in the third division with the revenue Rangers get for home games compared to the competition would have meant Rangers comfortably winning the third division and running up a surplus which would allow them to slowly move up the leagues and upgrade the quality of player as they go.
“In the latter half of the final season in the Championship they could significantly improve the squad but they have not maintained a strong financial platform.
“We know now the money has been wasted on legal fees, wasted on so many different areas but I don’t feel the club should respond by cutting the costs to the point of saying ‘we only have to do what is necessary to beat East Fife or whoever.’
“Because if you do that Celtic will build up to 10-in-a-row and we could be so far behind them that even when we are back in the Premiership we are not in a position to catch up.”
Tellingly Mr King also stated: “We have to be in a position to go up to the Premiership and we have to be in the position to launch a challenge to Celtic.
“There is no guarantee we are going to beat Celtic in the first season – infact it’s unlikely.
“It would be a miracle if Rangers were to go on and win the league the first season back but, similarly, we cannot risk going to Celtic Park and being battered 6-0.”
Celtic host Sevco on March 11
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