Dave King: Rangers will hold money in reserve until January

[JFK-1 1,693]

Rangers chairman Dave King has indicated manager Mark Warburton is unlikely to be given much more money in the current transfer window.

 

The newly promoted club started their Scottish Premiership campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Hamilton Accies on Saturday, with Warburton's squad still short of numbers. King promised an investment of between £30m and £50m when he was attempting to gain control of the then Championship club in 2015, but so far he has not any provided significant sum.

 

Head of recruitment at Ibrox, Frank McParland has been working with management duo Warburton and Davie Weir attempting to unearth players mainly out of contract. Rangers have brought in Niko Kranjcar, who turns 32 next week, to join 33-year-old Joey Barton and Clint Hill (37) on Bosman deals.

 

Matt Crooks, Josh Windass, Joseph Dodoo and Lee Hodson have all arrived on nominal fees, along with free agents Matthew Gilks and Jordan Rossiter. Speaking after the match with Hamilton, King revealed he is planning to hold back money until January, while hopeful the club will compete in the Premiership and in European football next season.

 

"I think it's still early days. Mark and Frank and Davie have done a lot of work, we've brought in a lot of players, we have obviously increased our investment in wages very, very considerably," King said on Sky Sports. "It's now a question of getting them to settle in.

 

Today was the first chance of playing together in a competitive environment, but we hope the investment we have made will see us in good stead over the course of the season. "I think we haven't finished doing business yet and given the fact we are in the Premier League, it's a more competitive league, I think we'll keep more in reserve for January as well and just look at where we think we are league wise at that point in time.

 

"Last year the challenge was to win the Championship and this year the challenge is to compete for the Premier League and then next year hopefully when we are in Europe, we'll increase the investment again to try and compete in Europe." Meanwhile, the South African businessman suggested fans will receive an update on the ongoing dispute with Sports Direct, who control the club's retail operation, and kit manufacturers Puma in the next couple of weeks.

 

The new Rangers kit was released on public sale last week despite the Glasgow club insisting they would not allow their IP to be used without permission, even though they are under contract with both parties and the official shirt sponsor. Puma and Sports Direct have decided to adhere to the terms of the deal and Rangers confirmed in a statement they were not contacted on the decision.

 

King remains optimistic the position can be resolved, although he offered no details on how he can have any say in the matter. "The situation regarding the well-known publicity, the commercial issues, is far more under control, if I can use that term, than it was a couple of months ago," King said.

 

"I think probably within the next few weeks. I think we've made a lot of progress in an area where we have a lot of sensitivity around it, that's Puma, it's how we handle the situation with Puma. "As a football club we regard our contracts as being very, very important. Puma, as we all know are a kind of unwanted party, they really shouldn't be there, and they are caught up in something.

 

"So we are trying to get the balance right between doing what we think is right for the football club and the supporters but still recognising that while our legal position may be that we can take certain actions, we still have to respect that Puma have been very supportive of the club. "We'll try and find a way out that works for both of us."

 

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11788/10526627/dave-king-claims-rangers-will-hold-money-in-reserve-until-january

[cooponthewing 1,139]

Not really what I wanted to hear. I have serious reservations over our ability to compete, no forget that, unless we get a CH and probably another striker, in the next three weeks, imo, we have zero chance of competing for a the title. Qualifying for Europe will be no cakewalk. It will be very difficult indeed.

Surely DK must realise we need at least a CH??

[RANGERRAB 3,659]

Why would we want to keep money in reserve til january?

We need a CB & a striker who can play in our system now not in January.

I always think that january is the lesser of the two transfer windows where teams generally one make one or two signings

[colinstein 294]

We are where we are

we don't have the money to spend

that's it !

[JFK-1 1,693]

Obviously we have no idea what goes on in the background. It may be the case that the chairman thinks there could be more money available in January than there is now so in his view holding off to make signings of a higher quality than we could afford at this moment is the way to go.

 

We must always keep in mind that as the manager constantly reminds us this is a multi year project which will take more than 12 months to accomplish. It's unrealistic to expect them to construct a team capable of conquering Europe in the 12 months since the project began.

 

I'm confident we will be comfortably stronger from possibly window to window and undoubtedly from year to year.

[trublusince1982 243]

Invested heavily in wages! Sorry don't see how the increased income attained through promotion along with the wages that have been cut wouldn't be sufficient to cover the increase or the vast majority of it at a minimum.

The plan was always to aim for second and rely on euro money to heavily invest, said it when they took over and it still looks like the plan now. It's better than having the last lot in charge but it's still far from perfect.

 

Winning is the only acceptable level for me. We need over investment in the short to mid term . This approach of spending very little will ultimately cost MW his job. No Ibrox crowd will accept defeat from Scottish sides or trailing hearts or the likes of the sheep. 3rd would be treated as a disaster , 2nd as failure and anything less as the end of the world.

[jhunter 0]

We have to be realistic, if the money isn't there, it isn't there.

 

IMO a realistic ambition has to secure second comfortably hopefully playing the fast flowing entertaining football that we've seen - mostly since MW took over.

 

garbage like yesterday however against the likes of hamilton will in no way be tolerated game after game.

 

the sight of an experienced player gesticulating to our keeper he doesn't want the ball and incapable of playing simple 10 yard passes is unacceptable.

[Whosthedado 1,680]

I was quite impressed by Hearts against the tims. I thought they were unlucky. If we don't add to our squad I can see them and the sheep pushing us for second. We need at least one centre half and if Waghorn is out for a while at least one more striker

[MacK1950 2,376]

In my opinion the plan to finish second is on this and other forums and I have not seen this position mentioned on official Rangers sites,certainly if we done so it would be great.

Regarding spending at next window remains appropriate as we will have a better perspective of what stage we are at then.

One point to remember is that yesterday we started with a team and a bench who are all signed Rangers players,therefor there is room for loanees or further signings before window closes,so let's see what developes

[colinstein 294]

I was quite impressed by Hearts against the tims. I thought they were unlucky. If we don't add to our squad I can see them and the sheep pushing us for second. We need at least one centre half and if Waghorn is out for a while at least one more striker

 

thought tims were poor

never a penalty for Hearts....and Hearts defence is as dodgy as ours