So according to Dave King he has won the Rangers EGM vote to oust the incumbent board by a ‘landslide’. If true then he should have the keys to Ibrox within a week.

After James Easdale and David Somers jumped ship in the past week, the result of the EGM always looked favourable towards King and his associates (Paul Murray and John Gilligan).

But the two remaining board members (Derek Llambias and Barry Leach) are clinging on to control until the EGM is heard on March the sixth.

That allows messrs Llambias and Leach time to put Mike Ashley’s plans into place. Firstly they are drawing down on Mike Ashley’s £10m loan, basically getting another £5m from Ashley’s Sports Direct firm. That move adds extra debt to the ‘in-coming’ board and tightens Ashley’s grip on the Rangers product, especially in the retail field.

So when King arrives at his Ibrox office as the new chairman, he’ll have a hell of a job to untangle the Ashley situation and work on ways that can help the club deal with Ashley. King will obviously look for loopholes to help oust Ashley away from the retail business and from the clubs trademarks but that might be too great a task.

It might be better for Castlemilk man to come to an amicable agreement with Ashley but whether or not that can be done remains to be seen.

Ashley might not be the only opposer to the new King regime.

The SFA and the stock exchange might need to be convinced that Dave King is a suitable person to take charge of a football club and business. Given his long fight with South Africa’s revenue service, you can see why the authorities might be reluctant to allow King to take control of Rangers with no questions asked.

King on the other hand will be bullish and feel that the he has dealt with the South African authorities appropriately and point to shareholders support, who are in favour of him taking control. He’ll also hope that the SFA and SPFL will see King and co as the men to bring Rangers back to the big time, thus meaning that they’ll turn a bit of a blind eye to Kings guilty verdicts in South Africa.

I fully expect the Rangers support will return to Ibrox in their droves, in support of the new era and to show that their absence was down to them protesting against a shoddy board. But King, Gilligan and Murray will need to keep the fans onside. The Rangers faithful are now a demanding lot and won’t accept any lack of transparency from those that run the club.

At the moment the future board are seen as ‘Rangers men’  but that will mean nothing if they fail to deliver in Govan. If King is to become the new chairman then he’ll have to be hands-on and also be seen not just heard!

I’d also like to see at least one fan member from either the Rangers Supporters Trust or Rangers First, join the board (By the way, I think having both of these fans groups is one too many but he- ho). It would repay the fans for the faith they have shown Mr King and his pals.

Plus lets remember that King and Murray were both on the Gers board when the club was sold off for a pound to Craig Whyte. King then remained on the board while Whyte was in charge! Some fans will see that as treason and they too will need to be convinced that King is the real deal and not just after his cash back from the David Murray days.

So all that needs to be sorted out.

Then Rangers also have on-field troubles that need to be address.

Firstly the managers position needs to be sorted out.

I wouldn’t be surprised if King wanted to bring back Ally McCoist but I doubt the fans would welcome ‘Super Ally’ back as Rangers manager. He’s an Ibrox great but he didn’t impress as the Gers boss. So King has to be wary of just handing his old pal his job back. Plus I’m not sure McCoist would welcome a return to the Rangers technical area.

Current caretaker gaffer Kenny McDowall clearly doesn’t want to remain in charge and the quicker he departs from the scene the better. Gers fans shouldn’t forget his achievements with Rangers but the time has come to say cheerio.

The new regime then has to find a new boss. Preferably a young coach who is hungry to succeed and knows a bit about the Scottish game. That head coach then needs support from an experienced director of football who can oversee player recruitment and the development of youngsters at Murray Park.

The new management team then need to have a scouting network implemented. A club the size of Rangers needs to have scouts there that can spot talent from home and abroad, its essential and disgraceful that its gone this long without such a structure put in place.

The quicker a new manager can be found the better, so he can suss out which players he wants to keep and who to offload. Plus they need to stop the decline and have the team playing well and with passion and try and gain promotion into the Premiership via the play-offs.

So there is no time for Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan to sit back and celebrate any boardroom victories just yet. Actually the hard-work hasn’t even started yet.

Foes still need to be vanquished and shareholders won’t allow the new board a honeymoon period or time to learn from mistakes, they will demand an instant positive impact.

The time is fast approaching for Dave King to put his money where his mouth is and prove himself worthy of running Rangers football club!

Posted on March 3rd, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article