DAVE King spent much of last week meeting fellow Rangers shareholders and institutional investors in the Ibrox club in order to ensure their support at the EGM next month.

The South Africa-based businessman has revealed he is "very very confident" of receiving the necessary backing to oust the current regime at the general meeting on March 4.

Nothing, of course, is straightforward where Rangers are involved. The choice of the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London being selected as the venue has been met with widespread discomfort among the fans.

The suspicion is that if the existing directors are unable to muster the votes required to hold on to power by conventional means they will attempt to do so unconventionally.

The savage personal attack on King contained in the statement to the AIM Stock Exchange on Friday underlined what many had long suspected; the power battle at Rangers is going to be a dirty one.

Nevertheless, King and his associates are already looking further ahead and formulating plans which they believe will enable the Glasgow club to return to the forefront of Scottish football if they do take control.

Appointing a permanent replacement for Ally McCoist by bringing in a manager who can rebuild the side and secure on-field success is at the top of their list of priorities.

Luring Rangers stalwarts back into the club to work behind-the-scenes in a variety of roles is also seen as important so the identity of the institution can be restored.

The fact no fewer than 12 members of the first team squad are out of contract in the summer is seen as an opportunity to substantially reduce a crippling wage bill that Charles Green, Brian Stockbridge and Craig Mather are largely to blame for.

"There is obviously an opportunity to have contracts terminated," said King. "We have to make some fairly significant changes to the footballing side. But before that it is critical that we get the right manager in because we are bringing a manager into a team that is obviously not equipped to compete in the Premier League and is really struggling.

"You would have thought that when Rangers were demoted they would have fairly comfortably come through the lower leagues into the Premiership and then maybe struggled for a season or two.

"But right now we are struggling to get out of the Championship. Given the need to balance budgets and just be more sensible about the way the money is spent, we are going to have to get a manager who has the capacity to identify and manage players.

"So I would imagine that the single most important decision will be identifying the right manager, who has all of these qualities. It really is someone who is more of a coach."

King revealed he would be willing to pay compensation to another club for their manager if the best candidate they identify is in employment.

He said: "If it was within reason, then paying compensation would be considered. I think everyone would accept that Rangers have to completely rebuild the squad. So the manager's role is so critical.

"One wouldn't easily take the second choice when a little bit of money would have got you your first choice. I think we have just got to get it right. There's too much money being spent around it that is key to that individual to not get that appointment right."

McCoist is currently on gardening leave while he serves out his 12-month notice period and could theoretically return in some capacity if King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan are appointed directors.

But King said: "My understanding is that Ally has expressed no interest in coming back even with regime change. The indications I've had from those who have spoken to him more recently than I have is that he thinks he is done and he really doesn't see himself as part of the future."

John Greig, Sandy Jardine and Walter Smith have all worked behind the scenes at Ibrox in a number of different roles in recent years and King would like to see a return to the days when Rangers men were involved in the running of the club.

Greig declined to take to the pitch along with the other members of the European Cup-Winners' Cup winning team when the Govan Stand was renamed in honour of his former team-mate Jardine back in August.

King said: "For me personally somebody like John Greig would be very important. I spoke to John when I was over here in November - just phoned him up and asked him how he was doing.

"There are individuals who are not welcome - because they are not supportive of the existing regime. But what we would like to do is connect with the past.

"Despite the difficult times, the history hasn't been lost. We already have Richard Gough showing support and to have people like John Grieg and Graeme Souness is going to be very, very important."

The Glasgow-born financier, who once ploughed £20 million of his personal fortune into his boyhood heroes, is hopeful there will be no nasty surprises lurking in the books if he does take over.

He said: "I think the circumstances of the club are such that there is a limit to how bad it can be. I can't imagine there will be a huge amount of creditors building up. I can't imagine that anyone has been lending money that we don't know about.

"The stadium we know hasn't been used as security.

"So while I think there will be some surprises, I think they might run into a couple of million, I don't think we are going to find a hole of £15 million to £20 million."