DAVE KING has reinforced his bold claim that Rangers will challenge for next season's SPFL Premiership by stating that his manager, Mark Warburton, is achieving a degree of value for money in the transfer market that has not been matched by Celtic.

The Ibrox chairman believes the current gap between both clubs does not reflect the vast difference in the levels of finance spent on playing personnel and is confident that Warburton will be more than capable of contesting the title with the current Scottish champions with the addition of five or six new players.

"It (the gap) is not as big, in my mind, as it was three or four months ago," said King, who has reached agreement with former manager Ally McCoist to end his controversial period of gardening leave after resigning last December.

"Celtic have a budget that is a lot higher than Rangers, but do I think the quality of player Celtic has is a multiple of the budget that Rangers have? I don't think so.

"Do I think the level of business that Mark has done is at a level that can compete with Celtic. At the moment, I think a number of them (the players) can do."

King, already embroiled in a dispute with Hibernian over summer negotiations for Scott Allan, is confident Rangers will quickly extend their existing lead in the Ladbrokes Championship and is so impressed by Warburton's early work that he believes winning the Premiership crown next term is now a realistic ambition.

"When we had the last discussion about this, I think I probably said that I felt we should be a solid second to Celtic," he said. "My thoughts now, sitting here today, have gone beyond that and we can start next season intending to win it.

"We might not win it because Celtic's resources are very strong and they have more experience, but I think we should start the season with the intention of winning the league.

"We will add at least another five players at an equal or higher standard before we go into the Premier League. With the time we have got to prepare and for current players to settle, I don't see myself sitting here at the start of next season, making excuses to the fans about us not trying to win the league."

King claimed in TV interviews yesterday that Hibernian made the initial approach to Rangers about selling Allan before stating publicly that he would not be permitted to move to Ibrox and then completing a deal with Celtic for the midfielder.

"I took the initial call from Rangers," said Leeann Dempster, the Hibernian chief executive. "I can confirm that Mr King's version of events is not correct."

Even so, King has thanked Celtic for taking Allan out of the Hibernian team hoping to challenge Rangers for the Championship, claiming that missing out on the player has made no difference to his football department's longer-term strategy.

"Given we were not going to get him, it was nice of them to help us out there," said King.

"Next season is a different season. Next season, we will have another five or six Scott Allans.

"The value to us of Scott being taken away from Hibs is more than the value was for us having him the next couple of years.

"I regard it as an honest miscommunication within Hibs.

"We spoke to a senior person who, ostensibly, had the authority to encourage us to make an offer.

"When it went to the highest level of the board, they said they didn't think they could sell the player to Rangers.

"Where I viewed it differently from Hibs was that the initial approach had really come from them."