Rangers must keep spending on squad says Dave King

FORMER Rangers director Dave King as urged the club to keep spending money on players, rather than cutting costs.

Former Ibrox director Dave King, pictured right, with Ally McCoist. Picture: SNS

King expressed his concern that Rangers would be ill-prepared to compete with Celtic when they return to the Scottish Premiership.

Ibrox chief executive Graham Wallace is undertaking a review into every aspect of Rangers’ business, and proposed a 15 per cent pay cut for the first-team squad, which was dismissed.

Wallace has conceded that cuts need to be made in order to balance out the business, but he has ‘categorically denied’ that administration is a possibility.

King believes cutting costs at this stage will undermine the club’s efforts to reach its previous status.

The first-team wage budget is around 30 per cent of turnover - far lower than UEFA’s guidelines - and following the departure of Neil Murray last year, the club lacks a scouting set-up.

King told The Herald: “The CEO has a lot of personal credibility but he is constrained by the funding realities.

“I believe the club has to have funders who will invest to ensure that we can compete with Celtic when we get back to the SPFL. Unfortunately, our existing shareholders either don’t have the money or the willingness to support the manager.”

The South Africa-based businessman added that he felt the club should be investing in the squad, and not reducing it, with the right shareholder profile.

He continued: “We should be supporting Ally McCoist 100 per cent.”

King has said in the past that he is keen to lead a fresh round of fundraising through a new share issue. The shareholders would have to reinvest in order to maintain the size of their stake in Rangers International Football Club (RIFC), so a new scheme would likely alter the ownership.

Wallace has agreed to address the need for funding once he has dealt with the business.

Former Weir Group employee King, who reportedly lost £20 million during the financial collapse of the oldco club, held meetings with shareholder and board member Sandy Easdale last year in a bid to arrange an agreement allowing him to invest in the club once again and assume the role of chairman of RIFC plc.

However, he failed to reach a compromise with the various factions within the shareholder base.

He was also keen on bringing Paul Murray back to the club, describing him as ‘a man that all Rangers fans can completely trust’, but Murray was one of the ‘gang of four’ who did not receive enough votes at last month’s AGM to be elected onto the Ibrox board.