THE Rangers men are gathering again.

A bit like Mel Gibson in Braveheart, they went to the hills to regroup after a defeat and have come back to rejoin the battle. First, the group known as the Three Bears - involving George Letham, Douglas Park and George Taylor - bought up Laxey Partners' 16% stake in the club.

And then Dave King purchased the 14.6% owned by fund managers Artemis and Milton, making him the largest single shareholder.

Throw in backing from the likes of Ally McCoist and Walter Smith and that adds up to similar percentage of the club to that controlled by Sandy Easdale and Mike Ashley combined.

The two groups are acting independently, but desperate times require desperate measures and they could form a coalition of like- minded people and join forces to amass a shareholding of 51% in the club, mustering everything they can to try oust the current board.

Who knows how Ashley will react to it all? His efforts to increase his shareholding have been rebuffed by the Scottish Football Association, but he still has his commercial deals to protect.

In any case, the week's events were significant in terms of sending out a message that people were not prepared to hang about any longer. There is now a loose grouping of like-minded Rangers people who could put together a bid for enough of the shares to get the current board out and can run the club as they see fit.

King has always been there in the background, as have the likes of Paul Murray and Park, but the transport tycoon has finally put his money where his mouth is.

It has to be good news for Rangers fans that wealthy backers of the club are at last making their play to be involved.

Under the current regime, there always seems to be a lack of finance, that they are down to their last couple of grand, or there are question marks as to whether they can get through the month. That is far from the best scenario if you are a supporter.

They clearly don't want Ashley either, so this news is the first positive for the fans for a long time, some light at the end of the tunnel.

We all know King had his troubles with the South African tax authorities in the past and only time will tell if these new Ibrox powerbrokers can get the club back on a firmer financial footing, but they are certainly going to have a crack at it.

These people have sat passively in the background, but have now said enough is enough and obviously decided it is time to act. People were saying King and others had to put their money where their mouth is, but they were obviously looking for the right opportunity.

The two moves open up plenty of questions, not least of which is whether Ally McCoist could even return as manager. He is, after all, only on gardening leave, so the club are still paying him.

When any board take control they want their own people in there. Nothing would surprise me at Rangers any more, so I would say of course McCoist could come back in, or even Walter Smith could return. But for me I think that era has been and gone. I think the fans are probably saying "get us a new manager, let's start afresh". They will want to see someone new in the job with new ideas, but still someone the Rangers fans would trust.

If these new players gather enough shares to oust the current Rangers board, I think they will want a new manager in ASAP in the hope he can lead the club to a second-place finish in the SPFL Championship and promotion via the play-offs.

With the possibility of an egm being held to potentially remove board members in late January, time is naturally of the essence, but the most important thing, first and foremost, is that Rangers get back to running properly as a business.

It might take another season to get the club back to the top flight, but I think Rangers fans would snap your hand off to accept one more year's wait in return for stability for the future.

After the blow of losing Lewis Macleod to Brentford this week, I'm sure the fans would love to see a few players brought during the transfer window, but it is hard to see how that is going to happen.

Every club will have their own goals during the January window and we at Ross County will definitely be delving into the market because we need a certain type of player and character to see us out of the situation we are in, starting the new year at the bottom of the Premiership table.

I don't think Aberdeen will be spending a lot of money or committing too much in the way of wages although they might add one or two if they are serious about challenging Celtic at the top.

For the Parkhead club the priority will simply be getting through the month without losing Virgil van Dijk and John Guidetti.

I said last week that I was sure Aberdeen wouldn't be able to maintain a challenge, but I have nothing but praise for the job Derek McInnes is doing. I still think Celtic's squad is too strong, but the fact Aberdeen are ahead of them at New Year has been a real breath of fresh air.