‘We can’t stagnate’ - Dave King set to oppose Rangers chairman Douglas Park at AGM as he confirms Kyle Fox discussions

Dave King fears Rangers will ‘stagnate’ for years to come if there aren’t changes made in the Ibrox boardroom as he outlined his voting plans ahead of the club’s AGM on December 6.

The former Light Blues chairman, who remains their largest individual shareholder, has confirmed he will oppose against the re-election of chairman Douglas Park and will also vote against several other resolutions favoured by directors on the allocation of shares.

Manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was informed of his dismissal by Rangers hierarchy late on Sunday night after talks were held over the weekend following a catastrophic Champions League campaign and with his side trailing Celtic by nine points in the Scottish Premiership title race.

The news has left South Africa-based King increasingly concerned about the direction the club is heading as he addressed Club1872 members on Monday night.

He said: “I’ll be voting against three resolutions. The fact is, I was already having concerns about where this regime was headed. I felt some of the things happening were unacceptable - un-Rangers-like. The treatment of ex-players, the treatment of supporters.

“I felt voting against Graeme Park’s re-election last year would make that point. I had to put my money where my mouth was and used my vote to go along with what my concerns were. It was heading in the wrong direction. I didn’t like the way Steven (Gerrard) was forced out of the club. It’s not the way to treat people that delivered a title for us. I couldn’t not vote with my conscience.

“The situation is recoverable. I think we can be back winning the title, but the way things are going at the moment, unless changes are made to the leadership of the board - the leadership and executive of the club - I fear we will be stagnating for a long time to come. We really should have invested and kicked on. We could have bought Steven what he wanted.

“He wanted to kick on, given that the money was there. The impression I’m getting with the signings is we’re not getting as many as we want, but I do believe the money is there. I regret what happened. When I go back to 55, we should have kicked on with a great manager and defended the title. I think the board thought they could do it on the cheap.”

King opened up on his conversation with American businesswoman Kyle Fox who is attempting to complete her planned £25million takeover of the club by convincing some club officials to sell their shares.

She initially announced her intentions to acquire a 75-per cent stake in Rangers after meeting with ex-chairman Paul Murray earlier this year but after Park and his directors outlined their defiant stance, Fox scaled back to a smaller 25-per cent which would still make her the biggest shareholder.

King added: “I’ve only met Kyle once when I was over in Italy in the summer. She took me through her plans. I do think that she has a genuine appetite, if she can find a way around it, to bring some serious investment into the club.

“We can’t stagnate. I do think we could do with a new injection of people onto the board and a new injection of money. I don’t think the current composition of the board has a lot of scope to increase their investment. I think we need different ideas.

“Kyle is one such person. There’s a long way to go before I’d regard her as being a credible person, but I certainly wouldn’t discount her completely.”