Five questions Dave King must answer once he has ascended the Rangers throne

[pete 2,499]

14:10, 2 March 2015

By Record Sport Online

 

THE tycoon is almost certainly just days away from taking over at Ibrox but his critics argue his plans lack detail. Here Record Sport Online draws up the questions facing the South African-based businessman.

SNS Group The press listen to Dave King

Dave King

 

DAVE KING’S coronation as Rangers’ new chairman is expected this week.

 

The Ibrox investor is being heavily backed to complete his takeover over the next few days – and his crowning could come even before Friday’s egm.

 

James Easdale quit the board last week, David Somers followed this morning to leave just Derek Llambias and Barry Leach as directors of the Championship club.

 

And if the pair step down King would be ushered into power at Ibrox – providing he is cleared by the Stock Market and SFA regulations.

 

However, it has been claimed King’s plan for Rangers lacks detail. Being a fan it can be assumed he wants the best for his club – but how does he turn around Rangers when it is still haemorrhaging fortunes?

 

Here are five questions he must answer...

 

1. How do you know you’re fit and proper in the eyes of the Hampden hierarchy?

 

He can’t, unless of course he has already spoken to the SFA and they have privately given him the all-clear. The SFA, for their part, have publicly said they won’t comment on a hypothetical.

 

King, meanwhile, has repeatedly answered the question of fit and proper, although not always with any great weight behind it. His stock repsonse was largely "I’ll pass their test" without answering why.

 

In fairness he did answer with more detail during his last press conference in Glasgow last month. But it should also be noted critics have argued the SFA may not want to offer any great resistance to him ascending the Ibrox throne anyway.

 

2. You have forensically analysed the "onerous" contracts and they’re water tight – what next?

 

The contracts with the likes of Sports Direct are thought to be the biggest drain on income at the club. The Union of Fans conducted analysis of the accounts late last year and found for every £10 spent on retail, Rangers receive just 75p . If these deals cannot be ripped up then the club will continue to miss out on valuable revenue streams, irrespective of investment. If that wasn’t damaging enough, Mike Ashley also holds most of the club’s assets, except for Ibrox. King and Co would need to pay back the loans to Ashley - around £10million worth.

 

3. What kind of stewardship can you realistically hope to deliver if you’re based in South Africa?

 

King was a director at Ibrox before, of course, and spent much of his time in his adopted country. But that was as a mere board member. What if he wanted to be chairman? Surely this role would demand more time spent on it. He would surely lean heavily on his respected directors in Paul Murray and John Gilligan. He would also wish to appoint more directors although he has yet to state who they’d be.

 

4. Who will be the new Rangers manager?

 

SNS Group

Former Motherwell manager Stuart McCall

 

Names have been bandied about for weeks but until King ascends the throne, it is all rather academic. However, the closer he comes to power, the more relevant the question becomes. Some of the support is split on who they want as their next gaffer. Many believe the likes of Stuart McCall or Terry Butcher should be appointed. Others, however, want a break with tradition and for a new, inspired manager to lead the club.

 

5. What is your long-term vision for the club encompassing both the youth academy and scouting department?

 

Ally McCoist famously "let it slip" that the club is so shorn of a scouting department, Stevie from IT sometimes helps with player identification. Of course, the former manager may well have been attempting to shine a light on how ridiculously bereft the club is in that respect. Scouts will need to be appointed, another big expense, and Murray Park will need to be upgraded. King has already intimated that Ibrox and their Auchenhowie HQ needs around £10m spent on them to bring them back up to scratch.

 

I hope we stay away from the old Rangers players as managers. There are so many better out there.

[Laudbertz 0]

The Union of Fans conducted analysis of the accounts late last year and found for every £10 spent on retail, Rangers receive just 75p.

 

Stark reminder of the good the current board did for Rangers. No good.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

load of rubbish

[der Berliner 3,808]

Five questions Dave King must answer once he has ascended the Rangers throne ... no shit, DR? It is so good that "we" have you to tell us what needs to be done and what King will have to do.

[Frankie 8,663]

A better article from Jackson today:

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/keith-jackson-fight-rangers-over-5261987

 

THE last few shots are about to ring out. The war for control of Rangers will most probably reach an inevitable conclusion in a broker’s office in London’s square mile.

 

In many ways it might be almost anti-climactic. No big Hollywood style, shoot ’em up at a shareholders showdown inside Ibrox. No tanks on the lawn. No blood spilled on the marble staircase.

 

Just a negotiation behind closed doors about the surrender and resignations of the club’s only two remaining directors , CEO Derek Llambias and his MASH-approved henchman Barry Leach.

 

After three years of political pyrotechnics which have blown this boardroom to bits, if this is to be the big finale then few could have guessed it would be so low key.

 

But even if this Rangers board does not go out with a bang, it doesn’t mean that what goes on in the City today should be dismissed as a damp squib. Far form it.

 

These discussions, in fact, couldn’t carry any greater significance. They may end up signalling a landmark moment, the outright surrender of a regime which, in one shape of another, has not only ransacked Rangers for most of the past three years but also caused collateral damage to all parts of the Scottish game.

 

Be in no doubt, this endless list of chancers, charlatans and incompetents have not only turned Ibrox into a big house of ill-repute but the disregard they have shown to our national sport in general has also been verging on criminal.

 

That Llambias and Leach are now weighing up the terms of their own capitulation indicates that this period of conflict is all but over.

 

It’s now only a matter of days, hours even, before both are emptying out their office drawers and vacating the premises. Leach – who might be the only financial director in British football who bashes out his sums on an oversized Sports Direct calculator – will soon be lobbing it into a black bin bag and retreating over the border.

 

And the moment they are gone the restoration of Rangers as a football club again can begin.

 

For Dave King, though, this is not the end. Rather, it is the start of an even more formidable fight because the most important battle of all starts from the moment he breaks through the barricades to enter the boardroom.

 

One day, years from now, he may look back on it all from a retirement home in Johannesburg and consider that securing a regime change was actually the easy bit.

 

Already his vision for where he wants to take this club is obscured by all manner of obstacles and roadblocks.

 

First he must find a way of negotiating his way around Mike Ashley and maybe even attempting to force the Newcastle owner into backing down, which goes firmly against his nature. Ashley has a fist full of ace cards in the shape of assets, badges and retail contracts not to mention a loan of between £5million and £10m which he has carefully placed around Rangers’ neck like a noose.

 

This man did not become a billionaire by rolling over in the heat of negotiations – and especially not after he has worked so hard to get all of his ducks in a row ahead of this showdown with King. That’s problem one.

 

Problem two comes in the form of three little words – fit and proper. Whenever King’s name is mentioned this phrase is held up by fans of many other clubs – by Celtic’s in particular – as if they are brandishing a cross at an onrushing vampire. As a result of this hysteria it has become an incendiary subject.

 

But it is one which King must stare down nonetheless as there is no question his credentials as a Rangers director must be held up for proper scrutiny.

 

Not only does he have a clutch of criminal convictions for tax dodging to explain but he must also satisfy the SFA as to why he sat quietly on Craig Whyte’s board while the former owner was busy driving the club towards the financial abyss which began with administration and ended in liquidation – all of which could prove a great deal more tricky than King appears to believe.

 

But weighing heavily in his favour, is his motivation for wishing to step into this almighty mess. King cares so deeply about his club that he is prepared to plough much of his own fortune into mending it. He’s not here to harm Rangers, he’s here to fix them.

 

For example, it is beyond ludicrous to think that a man like Paul Murray – who has spent four years railing against all manner of disruptive and dysfunctional regimes – would be willing to walk into Ibrox arm in arm with King if there was any reason at all to doubt his sincerity.

 

On that basis King could reasonably argue that any concerns over his “fit and proper” status are concerned are absurd, given that the fundamental reason behind the drafting of these regulations is to protect the best interests of the club itself.

 

He may also face similar interrogations with the Stock Market regulators and it remains to be seen if they will endorse him as a director even though he is free to go about running businesses in South Africa after settling his dispute with the tax authorities.

 

To that end he must also secure and reveal the name of a new Nominated Advisor, one willing to take on the company’s affairs and vouch for King with the bosses at AIM.

 

And it doesn’t end there. King is about to return to a decaying stadium which needs anywhere between £6m and £10m in urgent refurbishment. And that’s before he watches a game of football and sees with his own eyes just how dilapidated Kenny McDowall’s first team has become.

 

What does he do about finding a new manager and does he need one now, for this season, or write off promotion for another 12 months? How much will it take to furnish that manager’s ambition with new players? Who should take charge of youth development at Murray Park? Who will run his board at an executive level?

 

King will have to come up with answers for all of the above. And he’ll have to do so quickly.

 

But there may be an even bigger task and one which ultimately will determine if this club is capable of nurturing itself back to health in the manner in which Hearts have done so successfully over the past nine months.

 

Because changing the regime might not matter at all unless King, Murray and John Gilligan can also change the culture of entitlement which took root inside Ibrox long before any of the recent fly-by-nights arrived.

 

To outsiders, Rangers project an image of hubris and self-importance while, on the inside, the club has been home to those who believe it owes them a living. No doubt they’ll be queuing up with their hands held out the moment King prevails – just like Llambias and Leach may do later today.

 

No, if King is to rebuild Rangers and modernise the club properly then both of these issues will have to be addressed. His new Rangers must be a triumph of self-sustainability over self-indulgence. Only then will his struggle be over.

[JTP 0]

Appointing Stuart McCall will be a terrible start IMO. If those rumours are true ofcourse.

[der Berliner 3,808]

What we need is a real manager, if only for 6 months or so. What we'll probably never have is someone we all warm to immediately. Likewise, what a manager does at one club does not exactly relate to what he can and will do at another. The current options will be limited, but let's wait and see what the new board will do about this. Debating speculation is quite pointless, not least when we hardly have a clue about the new board's intentions.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

If its just to see the season out it may work.

[andy steel 0]

What we need is a real manager, if only for 6 months or so. What we'll probably never have is someone we all warm to immediately. Likewise, what a manager does at one club does not exactly relate to what he can and will do at another. The current options will be limited, but let's wait and see what the new board will do about this. Debating speculation is quite pointless, not least when we hardly have a clue about the new board's intentions.

 

I agree with Jackson - what we need is to appreciate that it's going to take years of work to get back on an even keel, let alone back to any kind of success. Championship, SPL, this season or the one after...there's bigger fish to fry, ludicrous though it sounds, before we should be moaning about which league we're in.

 

I mean, I know we all say we get this, but will we really be willing to put up with more years of thin gruel without beefing too much?

 

Character is going to be very much needed, maybe even more so than over the last few years. Though in fairness, I was ready to give up in despair a few short months ago, so it shows you what I know.

Edited March 3, 2015 by andy steel

[Laudbertz 0]

If we are only getting someone in until the end of the season, id certainly prefer someone with more experience that McCall, this current bunch of players need confidence and a morale boost and im not sure McCall is the man to do that.

Wouldnt mind seeing Magath coming in for the rest of the season, then moving into the DoF positions that has previously been tipped to make was for another manager (Cathro?) for him to help guide.