Rangers chairman Dave King has revealed moves to pay off the club's oldco creditors and resuscitate the in-liquidation operating company.

But the move could potentially cost the club up to £78 million.

And an informed liquidation expert told the Herald that Mr King's plan if successful would only result in the oldco either being dissolved or placed back into the hands of the previous owner, Craig Whyte.

Mr King set out his vision to take RFC 2012 plc out of liquidation and putting current club assets such as Ibrox and Murray Park into it insisting that it was "practically feasible and legally feasible".

But he admitted that would involve creditors accepting "a compromise and waive some of the debt" with an offer of 50p or 60p in the pound.

Currently creditors would only expect to get under 10p in every pound from the liquidation.

Liquidators have confirmed that the maximum debt is at around £160 million, but that depends on whether the taxman wins the so-called 'big tax' case.

It has previously been confirmed that £72m of the £94.4m owed to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) relies on the outcome of their 'big tax case' appeal.

A failure to win would cut debts owed from around £160 million to £96.8 million, according to accounts produced by liquidators BDO.

A debt of £160 million would see Rangers having to find between £62 million and £78 million on any offer of 50p or 60p with £18 million already in the oldco creditors pot.

If the HRMC lost the case, the amount expected to be needed would still be between £30 million and £40 million.

The Rangers International Football Club plc board has previously said it was not in the club's interests to repay an emergency £5 million loan provided by Sports Direct supremo Mike Ashley secured against Rangers assets such as Murray Park and the club trademarks.

Mr Whyte, who presided over the Rangers oldco's plunge into administration in February, 2012 and subsequent liquidation, always insisted that the company he used to buy the club, which became Rangers FC Group, had paid off the club's bank debt and inherited the bank security over the Ibrox outfit's assets. Documents lodged with Companies House appear to confirm this.

Mr King stated if the taxman and other claims were taken out of the picture, an offer to pay off all the creditors completely was even a possibility.

He said putting the assets back into oldco was "a good thing to do" adding: “It’s an emotional thing as well with the supporters.

"They hear all this, ‘you’re not Rangers any more’ and ‘you are a new club’. It would be nice to put all that behind us and say we had this unwanted period and now we are back to where we were.

“It’s more emotionally important than practically important.

"You can never rewind what has happened, but you can try and look back in 100 years’ time and say there was a blip of four or five years in Rangers’ history when this all happened and it was resolved to the norm again."