SANDY Jardine last night predicted the return of Dave King to Rangers could enable the Ibrox club to compete with Celtic for the SPFL Premiership in the future.

 

Jardine, who has battled liver and throat cancer in the last year, has welcomed the prospect of King investing in his boyhood heroes once again. The South Africa-based businessman, who ploughed £20m of his personal fortune into the Glasgow club in 2000, has agreed in principle to become chairman.

Certain conditions - such as having full access to the club's accounts - will have to be met before the 58-year-old rejoins the board. However, Jardine, who has monitored the ongoing power struggle at the League One club closely, believes his involvement would be greatly beneficial.

"I know Dave King and I got on well with him previously. I think he would be good for the club," said Jardine. "When Dave was back looking at the club about a year-and-a-half ago, he realised the big thing for anyone taking over the club was that they would need investment.

"What we need is for everything to be calmed down and for there to be investment in the club. It's difficult to get investment when you are in the lower tiers of the Scottish game because your income streams are cut. The season-ticket holders have been fantastic, but they are paying a third off what they were three years ago. Sponsorship and hospitality is also down."

Jardine added: "We will get back into the top division. But when we get back there, we are not there just to compete against Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen, Motherwell and so on. We have to go and compete against Celtic - straight away. To do that, we need investment so that we can get better players.

"Dave King's a big Rangers man. He would be a great asset for our club. He would be an even bigger asset if he can bring investment in with him. That doesn't need to be from him, but from people he can bring in. He can help the club settle down, which it will do."

The news that King was preparing to make a return to Rangers came as non-executive director Ian Hart resigned in order to "pursue charity work". Jardine, who played in the first team at Ibrox for 17 years, does not feel the unrest will impact upon Ally McCoist's team. "I'll bet you if you asked our players at the moment: 'Who are our directors?' none of them would know," he said. "The players just get on with training and playing."

Of McCoist, Jardine said: "Ally was criticised last season, which was out of order because when we got our licence back from the SFA we had 48 hours to put a team on the park. I know the amount of players we were going to try to get but players wouldn't wait and Ally lost all his targets.

"We had to pull together a team of young laddies. But a lot of people devalued it with a bit of stick which I don't think was justified. Now, though, there has been proper planning, proper preparation, a good pre-season and we have signed our main targets. I think everybody would say that the signings have been very good.

"So judge Ally now, not on last season. Moreover, what other manager has to take the team and deal with the politics that have been involved? Nobody. It was unfair on Ally. We've not won anything but the team on the park is performing very well and the fans are enjoying it."

Sandy Jardine was speaking at the launch of Mr Struth: The Boss by David Mason and Ian Stewart. Published by Hachette, priced £20.