King: Rangers must spend "whatever it takes"

Photo by Jeff Holmes

Rangers chairman David King insists the Ibrox club will spend "whatever it takes'' to guarantee their return to the Scottish Premiership next season.

The Ibrox outfit face another 12 months in the Championship after their humiliating 6-1 play-off defeat to Motherwell.

But Light Blues chief King has promised to "over-invest'' this summer in a bid to ensure his team reclaim their top-flight status.

The South Africa-based business man - back in Glasgow to launch the club's season-ticket drive - had previously stated it could take £30million to put the club back on an even keel with Old Firm rivals Celtic.

Now he has said: "I think we will need money now because we will need to beef up the squad.

"The immediate mandate for the manager who comes in is that he will need to get additional players in.

"So there will be a fairly substantial investment required in the next couple of months from me and the other investors.

"But if you want to look at the funding plan, it is to spend whatever it takes to win the Championship next year and have at least the nucleus of a squad to move up to the Premier League the year after.''

While King has not ruled handing interim boss Stuart McCall a new deal, the Castlemilk-born tycoon did reveal Rangers have touched base with five candidates for boss, with an announcement likely next week.

He said: "There are possibly five realistic candidates that might fit the bill. It is very important we balance the obvious urgency of making an appointment with the need to get it right.

"We need to make an appointment that sees us through for the next three years.''

Former Brentford boss Mark Warburton has held "informal talks'' with Rangers about replacing McCall but King admitted other bosses had been turned off the idea of managing the club by the prospect of another year in the Championship.

But despite the failure to reclaim their Premiership slot, King - who says the club are hoping to be re-listed on the ISDX stock market in October - thinks the task of one day catching Celtic will be made easier by an extra season in the second tier.

He said: "I don't think catching Celtic has been made harder by the Motherwell result. It's been delayed by a year but I think it's now easier.

"To have gone up this year with a new management team and virtually a whole new team would have been very hard. At least now we have three transfer windows so we can get the new management structure settled in.''