RANGERS chairman David King will entrust the next Ibrox manager with a multi-million-pound war chest after promising to spend “whatever it takes” to guarantee the club’s Scottish Premiership return next season.
The task now for King is to find the man who can lead Rangers back to the top flight and buy in a whole new team after 11 out-of-contract players were told they were free to go.
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.” The Johannesburg-based businessman – back in Glasgow to launch a five per-cent increase in the club’s season-ticket prices – had previously stated it could take £30 million to put the club back on an even keel with Celtic.
Now he claims the spread of that cash will have to be front-loaded – with plenty of spending immediately – to ensure the club do not let another 12 months fritter away.
But he said: “The mandate to the manager is going to be: ‘Do not get players who will help us win the Championship – get players that could compete in the Premier League.’”
For many, King’s words will bear a resemblance to former owner David Murray’s infamous claim that for every fiver Celtic spent, he’d put down a tenner.
It was that kind of flagrant spending which saw Rangers sink into a financial black hole.
But King insists the new board will have to live dangerously meantime to solve the club’s current loss-making problems. “We’re going to increase running costs at the club,” he said. “The idea is to have it sustainable by the end of the three-year period – not during it.”
While King claims Rangers will spend big this summer, he refused to put a figure on how much he would personally put into the club as he admitted factors such as their controversial Sports Direct retail deal and the £5m loan taken out from the sportswear company’s owner Mike Ashley could put hurdles in his way.
“The funding figure of what will be required is based on a number of things outwith our control. It would depend on our ability to renegotiate the commercial arrangements, the level of season-ticket uptake, whether we repay the £5m loan. So the investment must be whatever it takes to comfortably win the league and substantially take us forward into the following season.”
Former Brentford boss Mark Warburton has held “informal talks” with Rangers about replacing McCall but King admitted other bosses had been turned off by the prospect of another year in the Championship.
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