'Sensational' Rangers return bid lands verdict amid sour taste of 'bitter bust-up' as Celtic fear grows


A Rangers return for ex-chairman Dave King is not said to be a go.
The millionaire wrestled control of the Ibrox club away from a Mike Ashley-backed regime in 2015. He has said he’d be up for a return to the chairman’s seat after John Bennett stepped down due to health reasons, with the club also without a permanent CEO at present after James Bisgrove’s exit to Saudi Arabia.
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Hide AdAccording to the Daily Record, his bid to “complete a sensational Rangers return looks set to be dashed.” The report goes on to claim “King’s former allies in the boardroom have no plans to dispatch an SOS to his base in Johannesburg following a bitter bust-up that followed his shock Ibrox exit back in 2020.”
It comes after King took to talkSPORT on Monday to explain his reasoning behind wanting to put a two-year plan in place. Rangers hold the mantle as the world’s most successful club but Celtic drew level last season with 118 major trophies and are one off the world-record 55 domestic league titles. King’s fear is it won’t be long before the Parkhead side go past his ex-club.
He said: “There is a very significant gap on and off the pitch between us and Celtic. My fear, longer term as a fan, isn’t about stopping 10-in-a-row which was my previous target. One thing we do hang onto is we are still the most successful club in the world and if we slip too long we might lose that as well.
“There is a level of urgency. This season is slipping. I’m talking as a supporter. It will be very challenging with European games coming up and they could be in a very difficult place by October. There’s no leadership.
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Hide Ad“There are two main categories. In the time we went through the rebuild of the club when it had been hollowed out by the Easdales and the Mike Ashley situation. We had to rebuild all the policies, procedures, recruitment, scouting. Everything in the club was broken and we got it to a point where were able to make decisions and take some management risks.
“At least there was a solidarity and progress was being made and that got us to 55 which was the target. My biggest disappointment is to see the areas where we have gone backwards where policies that were in place are no longer complied with by the present board such as recruitment of players and how we write commercial contracts with players.
"All of the things we were very careful with have just been abandoned - managers allowed to do their own thing with no oversight from the board. The limited resources we had in competing with our neighbours had to be applied very smartly. We did the opposite - we’ve actually wasted money.
"There was a great opportunity with the American consortium. We were trying to get substantial funds into the club. I’d seen proof of funds and negotiated with them in a business basis and it was rejected by Douglas Park, not even by the board, on the basis the board would put the money in and had everything under control. Clearly that hasn’t happened.
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Hide Ad“So not only have we failed to take in new money that was vital to closing the gap but we’ve also wasted the limited resources we did have and wasted the value of the Europa League run and nice transfer with Nathan Patterson and Calvin Bassey which was a windfall for the club."
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