Dave King continues to be given the benefit of the doubt at Rangers - both by supporters and sections of the media - but the point will surely come when that well of compassion runs dry.

So much around King remains vague - the amount of his investment, his fellow investors, their time-scale - yet he is surrounded by blind loyalty and even sycophancy in some quarters.

We've been here before with Rangers - most recently with Craig Whyte and, years before him, with Sir David Murray - and both these episodes of fawning acceptance ended in disaster.

I would have thought Rangers fans would have had their fill of this by now. You'd think, after all the scars of the past, there was a distinct wariness towards those who arrive at their club making big promises.

King is quite the charmer. He is good at it and successful at it. He actually is quite a nice guy. But the day will come this summer when Rangers fans start making more concrete judgements about what he is delivering at their club.

Has King injected this promised £16m into the club yet? Less than two months ago he said Rangers would be refinanced "very, very quickly" and that the £16m "was still there, from the same people" - whoever they are - just waiting to be ploughed in.

It was the last we heard of it.

I'll grant King and co this - it has been a gruesome end to the season for Rangers. He might wish to argue that he had to wait until knowing which division Rangers would be playing in next season before assessing the club's financial position.

That get-out aside, I'm not sure the plight of Rangers' financial position warranted much hanging around and waiting. There is a here-and-now urgency about it which required decisive action. But, beyond a few lame loans, we've not seen much evidence of it.

I'm hoping, after everything, that King will be true to his many words. I might be reckless in this regard. But Rangers can surely stand for no more showboating.

King and Paul Murray - I suspect, in the main, it is Murray - are currently scouring around for a new manager. On this, they can be granted a modicum of slack. It will be key to everything at Rangers. The new man will be the catalyst, for triumph or further disaster.

Poor football decision-making, along with three years of boardroom shenanigans, is equally to blame for the current state of Rangers.

Ally McCoist, with all the breathing space afforded him in terms of strolling through the lower leagues, has bequeathed a squad which, instead of being young and fresh and talented, is only fit for the knacker's yard.

Purely in football terms, time and opportunity have been scandalously wasted at Rangers in the years since 2012. McCoist was a brilliant player for Rangers but a very poor manager, and the price is now being paid for that.

It is a mistake that cannot be repeated again, which is why the King regime continues to search around for a suitable, able candidate fit to lead Rangers to the top of the Scottish game.

Everything carries a degree of risk. Staying with Stuart McCall is a risk. Going down the foreign route - such as in Vitor Pereira - is a risk. Going for a Billy Davies or a Derek McInnes would also carry risk.

King simply needs to make his choice - and be judged on it. But he is worth dwelling on this: the less risk, the better, given Rangers' current plight.

Figures like Pereira and Mark Warburton will have next to no knowledge of Scottish football. It can be a hindrance. Rangers' guiding principle in this search should be, the less risk, the better.

These are acute weeks coming up for Rangers. The club cannot tolerate any more than one more season in the Championship, with fans' ardour for the cause already withering. King himself has warned of a generation of Rangers fans being lost to the club.

But it has never been easy following King's motives. From his mixed messages about increasing or decreasing Rangers' budget, to his confusing signals about continuing to invest beyond the SFA's fit and proper judgement, he has proved an elusive character.

He muttered something about "the Americans" when someone asked him recently about any new investors coming on board at Ibrox. Which Americans, exactly?

It is hard to follow or fathom King sometimes. I sincerely hope, for Rangers' sake, he is not another false prophet.