PEACE in our time was probably stretching it a bit. But at first glance at least the deal which was finally struck at 2.54pm yesterday between The Rangers Football Club and Sports Direct - which appeared to end the proxy war between their feuding figureheads Dave King and Mike Ashley - seemed as momentous as any of the megadeals struck at Ibrox stadium over the years.

Could King and Ashley, these two implacable enemies, in fact co-exist? The last we heard from the latter, after all, was when he said last Christmas that it was his intention to see the former in jail for contempt of court.

But while the Rangers chairman was in bullish mood last night, claiming the landmark deal as testimony to his refusal to back down in the face of the belligerent behaviour of the retailer and its controversial owner, like all good deals both parties had something to gain here. This was a win-win, because both resolved to cut their losses.

Read more: Dave King: Rangers refused to back down to Mike Ashley and got the deal that we wanted

All this endless courtroom wrangling was costing too much time and money. So in the short term at least, at least until Rangers are able to re-examine this deal in 12 months time, they have made their peace. Now Ashley can get on with making money from all of his various business interest. And King can lay his hands on a greater share of the retail revenue as he attempts to level the Ladbrokes Premiership playing field with Celtic.

“We were at a stand off,” said King, “only to be resolved in the courts and we knew that wasn’t good for us, because we were giving Celtic that unnatural advantage because of the lack or our retail performance. And in my calculated estimate ... it can’t have been good for them. Because they believe they are a smart retailer, which they are clearly. Rangers certainly wasn’t a good model for them to go to other clubs.”

While the Londoner still owns just shy of 9% of Rangers shares, King cast doubt on whether he still has the appetite to maintain them. “I think that Mike Ashley’s shareholding in the club was linked to an integrated retail deal,” said the Rangers chairman. “So I would imagine he is certainly probably less interested in the need to have a shareholding in the club at this point in time than he has been previously. I would expect an announcement on that fairly soon.”

Read more: Dave King: Rangers refused to back down to Mike Ashley and got the deal that we wanted

The Ibrox chairman was coy about talking figures yesterday, but he hailed this agreement was the most “significant event” since regime change - ie. the day in March 2015 when he staged the boardroom coup which took the club from the Easdale brothers, David Somers and Derek Llambias. After retail cash, the next items on his to do list as he hopes to catch Celtic are a steady stream of European revenue and generating multi-million pound player sales from his squad.

“Celtic have obviously had three advantages over Rangers over the last couple of years,” said King. “We have taken the retail opportunity out of the equation completely and I think that will go back in Rangers’ favour again. What we have got to do now is bridge the other two gaps and I think it is fair to say that now we are back in Europe we will be back in Europe every year.”

Strip sales would effectively fund next season’s transfer outlay, with this summer’s already bankrolled by the board and other investors. “It won’t scale it [my outlay] back in the sense that we are already beyond the investment,” said King.

“People talk about this £30million, I think if you put it all together with commitments given then we are beyond that with the money that was put in this week to help fund the activities of the club. What it means is that if we had continued beyond the three year window I was talking about and we didn’t have a retail deal in place, I would have to go back to the investors and say ‘we had hoped to have a normalised Rangers within three years, but we don’t have a normalised Rangers’. I think I will have some quite relieved investors now I am not chapping on their door every six months looking for more money.

“I have seen comments, arguments put forward, that a deal should have been done with Sports Direct sooner,” he added. “That it was a personality clash with Mike Ashley or whatever. A deal could have been done sooner. But it would have been done on their terms.”

Who knows, King may now be able to take in a game or two. “I would love to be in the position to go to games and get the enjoyable part of it,” he said. “I have not been able to. From my personal point of view, the level of time I have had to devote to this has been significant. But my time can now be used more creatively.”