RANGERS chairman Dave King has insisted that he did not intend recent comments about Celtic to come across as disparaging and instead meant to praise his rivals.
The 61-year-old hit the headlines last week after suggesting that the Hoops aren't as far ahead as they should be in Scotland - despite winning the league by 30 points and completing an unbeaten domestic Treble last season.
But speaking to The Telegraph on Tuesday, the Ibrox chief insisted he did not mean to undervalue the achievements of Brendan Rodgers' side, admitting that the Gers' 5-1 defeat at the hands of their rivals was a 'reality check'.
“It does bother me if there’s a sense that I’ve been disparaging because I thought I did the opposite,” he said.
“I, in fact, said two things at different points during the interviews. One was that we were incredibly disappointed and surprised that we ended so far behind Celtic and, of course, Aberdeen. I said that it had been a wake-up call to have had the humiliation of the 5-1 defeat at Celtic Park, in the sense that, having beaten Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final the previous season, we had been over-optimistic.
“The 5-1 game was a reality check which galvanised us into making the change we did on the management side, on our structure and with the players we brought in. So that was giving Celtic complete credit for their performance in the league.
“Celtic’s goal difference was as high as the number of goals we scored. They won the three Scottish competitions without a defeat and I have nothing but respect for Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic team for what they achieved and for how difficult it is to win a treble and to keep winning when you’re already doing it comfortably.
“I do not underestimate what Celtic achieved on the field. However, in the interviews I said that – when I look back over the four years when we were in the lower divisions – in terms of our recovery as an institution and as a club, we have narrowed the gap substantially.
“By that I meant that, a year or two years ago, we would not have been able to react as we did last season by changing the management, spending money on a new manager, paying compensation, bringing him in early and, in fact, getting the quality of players that he wanted. To me there were two aspects of all of this and one was to give Celtic complete respect for how far ahead they were last season, but the second was that – as an institution – we have narrowed the gap quite considerably over the last couple of years.”
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