RANGERS chairman Dave King last night compared Celtic’s domestic dominance to “a pack of cards” and predicted just a single Scottish title win could tip the balance of power in favour of the Ibrox club.
The South Africa-based businessman revealed that Rangers hope to raise £6 million from a share issue “by the end of June”.
He confirmed that Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool and England great who was appointed manager on Friday, will be money to spend in the transfer market.
READ MORE: Rangers chairman Dave King on the Takeover Panel, Graeme Murty, Steven Gerrard and more
And he predicted that taking the income from the Champions League group stages – something which is worth in excess of £30 million – away from Celtic would enable Rangers to compete with them.
Asked how Rangers could challenge Celtic again, King said: “We appoint a manager who can win games, with more resources, and we take one league away from Celtic.
“We only need one league. We don’t need two or three. We need one. Once we take one away, it’s a pack of cards.
“With all Celtic’s resources they are not a million points away from Aberdeen or Hibs. They (Aberdeen and Hibs) have resources that are far less than what we have at the moment. We are bringing in a manager we think can tip the balance in our favour.
“Celtic’s costs structure is more like we were 10 years ago. We needed Champions League football and if we went into the Europa League we were in trouble because the cost structure was so high.
“Take that away for one season and it will change the numbers in the Celtic side very, very quickly. They have the comfort levels we once had of knowing we were going to get Champions League money.
“We have to take that away from them and hopefully we have started that process on Friday.”
READ MORE: Rangers chairman Dave King says share issue will bring in £6 million
King added: “Do Celtic’s resources put them beyond you forever? The answer is clearly no. We have seen the cycle. I was with Rangers when we thought Celtic would never catch up, never in a hundred years.
“Dick Advocaat said they would never, ever catch up. I think it lasted 11 minutes into the next game we played against them when we went 3-0 down. They caught up and then went past us because Martin O’Neill came in and figured out a different way to do it.
“You need the right management structure to do it. At the moment we’ve gone more top heavy on management because we have invested in the squad and struggled with stability in the manager’s office. We’ve gone the other way. We have now gone very, very strong in the management squad.
READ MORE: Rangers chairman Dave King accuses Takeover Panel of 'bullying'
“It depends on if they decide to invest or how well they invest. Celtic might be over-resourced, but you can still only play 11 players. They have a big squad earning a lot of wages, but these wages are not all getting on the pitch. There are opportunities there.
“If it’s hard then it’s harder for both of us. We don’t have to guarantee it, we have to narrow the gap against Celtic. So if Celtic are not getting it then that’s fine in that sense. It’s bad for Scottish football, but it doesn’t create a gap between us.”
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