Jump to content

Dave King Q&A - The Sun

Ace

By Ace
in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

 Share

Recommended Posts

Ace

Ace 3,556

Posted
Posted

I truly ducked trying to copy this article via my phone, so just follow the link below . .

DAVE KING has given a frank and fascinating interview on his two years as Rangers chairman.

King, 61, travelled to Glasgow from his home in South Africa for his first face-to-face meeting with new Ibrox manager Pedro Caixinha.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/768107/dave-king-on-thin-skinned-mark-warburton-pedro-caixinhas-title-target-and-why-hell-never-return-to-scotland-read-every-word-of-rangers-chiefs-sunsport-qa/

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
TheLawMan

TheLawMan 6,240

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Siam69 said:

Read the whole thing, 3 times.

And I could pretty much name you all the posters who will do the same, and focus totally on the mention of Chris Graham and Liverpool :Fod:

It's kind of hard to ignore the Chris Graham part though at least it confirms what a number of us said all along about him and Furys lies on here about refusing a position etc.

Blazer chasing at its very finest.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Creampuff

Creampuff 22,628

Posted
Posted

Anyone else draw the inference that King blames Warburton for the Barton thing blowing up? 

Just the parts about needing a big personality to manage a big personality and not asking for advice you're not ready to hear.

Plays into the narrative that Warburton wasn't happy at Barton's post-OF feedback.

Link to post
Share on other sites
kaiser1041

kaiser1041 9,088

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Creampuff said:

Anyone else draw the inference that King blames Warburton for the Barton thing blowing up? 

Just the parts about needing a big personality to manage a big personality and not asking for advice you're not ready to hear.

Plays into the narrative that Warburton wasn't happy at Barton's post-OF feedback.

On this occasion I agree with king.it would have took a big character to deal with joey and Warburton wasn't that guy

Link to post
Share on other sites
JCDBigBear

JCDBigBear 10,824

Posted
Posted
39 minutes ago, Siam69 said:

Read the whole thing, 3 times.

And I could pretty much name you all the posters who will do the same, and focus totally on the mention of Chris Graham and Liverpool :Fod:

There is nothing really startling in the interview.    He hopes to get a deal done with Sports Direct but he told us that would be sorted out a couple of years ago.   I hope this time he is is right.  As for the £30m, not much of it is his money as far as anyone can ascertain.  It does clarify that CG was angling for a blazer although God knows what all the spreadsheet stuff could have been about.  

Link to post
Share on other sites
Sweetheart

Sweetheart 8,458

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Ace said:

I truly ducked trying to copy this article via my phone, so just follow the link below . .

DAVE KING has given a frank and fascinating interview on his two years as Rangers chairman.

King, 61, travelled to Glasgow from his home in South Africa for his first face-to-face meeting with new Ibrox manager Pedro Caixinha.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/768107/dave-king-on-thin-skinned-mark-warburton-pedro-caixinhas-title-target-and-why-hell-never-return-to-scotland-read-every-word-of-rangers-chiefs-sunsport-qa/

 

That's quite a long winded article if you prefer to listen to it, then, C&P the text  into the reader here http://ttsreader.com/ then press play.

KING REVEALS ALL Dave King on ‘thin-skinned’ Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha’s title target and why he’ll NEVER return to Scotland – read every word of Rangers chief’s SunSport Q&A - By Robert Grieve, Chief Football Writer

DAVE KING has given a frank and fascinating interview on his two years as Rangers chairman. King, 61, travelled to Glasgow from his home in South Africa for his first face-to-face meeting with new Ibrox manager Pedro Caixinha. And in a rare in-depth sit-down he revealed: How former manager Mark Warburton was too THIN-SKINNED for the job – and he’s considering taking legal action against the new Nottingham Forest gaffer.How he has NO REGRETS over the costly Joey Barton signing.That he’ll NEVER return to Scotland to be a more hands-on Gers chairman.How he doesn’t expect Pedro Caixinha to wrestle the title from Celtic in his first campaign in chargeHis hopes on striking a new retail deal with Sports Direct in time for next season.

Q: YOU MET WITH PEDRO CAIXINHA ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, WHY DIDN’T YOU SPEAK TO HIM PERSONALLY BEFORE HIS APPOINTMENT?

DK: “It didn’t happen because it wouldn’t happen, the way we run the club.

“The board of the football club operates and runs their own deal so I certainly wouldn’t get involved in putting names forward.“Names came through to me but I passed them straight on to Stewart Robertson and the board would look at the choices and do the interviews.“That would happen whether I was at Ibrox or in South Africa. It would make no difference.“They would make the recommendation, which would then come to the main board for ratification in terms of costs, budget and the business plan.“The selection process is something I would never be involved in and from a governance point of view it’s something I shouldn’t be involved in.”

ON THE PITCH, WHERE DID YOU EXPECT RANGERS TO BE AT THIS STAGE?

DK: “I would have expected us to be equidistant between Aberdeen and Celtic.“If we were 12 points behind Celtic and 12 points ahead of Aberdeen I would have thought that was a fair position, at the beginning of the season, given that the strategy was to win the Championship last year and try to add seven players to improve the squad and add five, six, seven next year to try to improve it for Europe.“That’s clearly not worked for us on the park this year.”

SO HAD MARK WARBURTON NOT LEFT, WOULD HE HAVE BEEN SACKED?

DK: “He might have turned it around, he might have finished second. The season’s not over yet.“But the fact is that it was a choice that was really taken out of our hands. Am I distressed about it?“No, I’m not distressed. I think we’re better off now than we were two months ago.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED TO SEE MARK WARBURTON BECOME MANAGER OF NOTTINGHAM FOREST?

DK: “No – I’d have been surprised if he didn’t end up at Nottingham Forest.“My disappointment is that the way it was managed resulted – as matters stand at the moment – in Rangers not getting compensation which normally we’d have been entitled to, if the team had walked out, and we’ve had to pay compensation.“Once again we’re on the wrong side of the cash flow, through no fault of our own.”

HAVE YOU HEARD ANY MORE FROM THE LMA?

DK: “I think there is no case. The case really is what Rangers now do.“It certainly appears to me that what you’ve got now is an engineered outcome, to the benefit of Nottingham Forest.“I was approached directly, when they were in negotiation with Nottingham Forest to ask if Rangers would waive compensation and that was first I was aware they were even talking to Forest. “My response is what I am saying today, that we would not waive the compensation because if the management team does walk out and we have to replace them, we might have to pay compensation. “But I said I’d be flexible in how they paid the compensation. They might not have to pay it all up front but maybe spread it over a period of time.“That was taken out of our hands with the whole resignation debacle and they’ve all ended up at Nottingham Forest without us getting compensation and we’ve had to pay compensation.“That’s exactly where I didn’t want to be.”

WILL YOU NOW PURSUE NOTTINGHAM FOREST?

DK: “I’m going to have a legal discussion. On the face of it, whether it’s Nottingham Forest or the management team, it’s a possibility but we just have to see how we feel about that.”

COULD YOU PURSUE MARK WARBURTON?

DK: “It’s difficult to say. We need to know more. What I can say for sure is that I got a direct approach saying that they were in discussion with Nottingham Forest and that there was a problem with the compensation – would we waive it if they went. And I said no.“It was a direct approach but I said off the record that we wouldn’t. It was an indirect approach but directed to me in terms that I had the conversation, but it wasn’t officially from Nottingham Forest. “What was clear at the time was that there were discussions with Nottingham Forest and that’s been confirmed, quite frankly, since then that they were in discussions. “Whether these discussions were through the proper protocol – you’d normally expect clubs to talk to each other and say ‘Is it all right if we approach your manager?’ – there were a lot of things that didn’t happen.”

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN RESIGNATIONS BEING OFFERED AND THE OUTCOME?

DK: “I don’t know what changed.“What I can say is I had a strong assumption when we got the approach from their agent – about could they resign and we wouldn’t pay them compensation – I had a strong sense that was a precursor to them going to Nottingham Forest. "It didn’t make sense otherwise.“To then have a situation where, having accepted the resignation, we get a request saying they have actually not resigned, they are waiting until they get another job.“What I think happened, but I can’t say for sure, is that somehow there was a gap between themselves and Nottingham Forest."That they didn’t get the job and were a bit stuck in the middle.“We just said: “If you want to go, if you don’t want to be part of the club, then just go."We’ve accepted your resignation, we’ll get on with your replacement and the rest will be what it is.”

THEY DISPUTE THAT THEY ACTUALLY RESIGNED…

DK: “They do.”

ARE YOU CONFIDENT WITH YOUR STANCE?

DK: “Absolutely. You can’t un-resign. They resigned, we accepted the resignation, they decided to un-resign.“We said you can’t un-resign and they have all ended up at Nottingham Forest. I think one can join the dots quite clearly.”

AWAY FROM WARBURTON, WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THE TAKEOVER PANEL JUDGEMENT?

DK: “I think it is quite academic. They made their judgement. I might appeal it. “What I want to do first is to discuss things with some of the supporters groups. One of the things I have committed to is that no one individual should own Rangers.“I still believe that. There are a number of ways I can handle it. "I could go to supporters groups and say if I make an offer and can buy some of the shares back to you guys could you come up with the money? "Or I could appeal it. Would anyone accept an offer at 20p? “The way it works is I would have to make an offer and there would have to be more than 50 per cent acceptance of that offer, which means Mike Ashley would have to accept, the Easdales would have to accept, Club 1872 would have to accept. “I think the chance of it being accepted is really remote. I think it is pretty much a non-issue but I just have to think what I want to do about it.”

THERE HAS BEEN CRITICISM FOR NOT CO-OPERATING…

DK: “My view to them was a very simple one. There was a consortium. That consortium was myself and the supporters. “I worked on a daily basis with Chris Graham running spreadsheets. I worked with a whole bunch of supporters. “They were updating lists and sending me spreadsheets, sometimes 15 times a day.  I worked with them.“It so happens that Douglas Park, George Letham – who I’d never met at the time – and George Taylor – who I’d also never met – came in as individual investors with more money.“My argument was there was a consortium. But it was myself and the supporters really. It was certainly never myself and Douglas Park or George Letham.“So I argued technically that the real consortium was myself and the supporters. That remains “My argument was there was a consortium. But it was myself and the supporters really. It was certainly never myself and Douglas Park or George Letham. “So I argued technically that the real consortium was myself and the supporters. That remains my argument. Their findings are different and I have to decide whether to appeal it or not.”

GOING FORWARD, HOW DO RANGERS COMPETE WITH CELTIC?

DK: “The same way we have been doing. We have spent far more than half of the £30million already. I think £30m is not enough. I think it is going to be more than £30m. “But what the figure is at the end of the day will depend on how well we do. “We are behind where I thought we would be on the field. Coming second or third makes no difference to the Europa League qualifiers so there is minimal financial impact on that side. “But we have to move on and start competing in Europe. "The sooner we start competing in Europe and start competing successfully with Celtic, the more chance normalized revenues would allow us to continue on that basis.“If we fail in Europe, we are going to have to put more money into the club to get us to that position. But it is pretty much a season by season basis.“It is changed by the new management team. At this point, I have no idea what Pedro’s assessment is going to be.“He will look at the squad, decide on his player plan and we will have to back that.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF PEDRO HAVING NOW MET HIM?

DK: “I liked him as a person. I like his confidence, his personality, his temperament, his mentality. “If you want to call it a football philosophy, we had a good discussion around the different dimensions he might bring, if we think that team has maybe been a bit one-dimensional over the last period.“I was happy it pretty much tied up with the observations of the selection committee who made the recommendation. In my mind, it stacked up with that.”

HOW DO YOU COMPARE CAIXINHA WITH WARBURTON?

DK: “My expectations are different. When we signed Mark, we didn’t have much time. We made what I think was a conservative decision. "There were other options available to us and we went for what could be called a local option. “We felt that to rebuild the team we felt it would be better to have someone who at least had British knowledge of players. And I think Mark was very successful in doing that. “We understood we were getting a young manager, despite being 50-something. We felt it was the lowest risk for the club at a point of great risk with the club given the short timeframes for decision-making. “He would then have a season in the Championship, where we should win it. It would give him a chance to adjust to Rangers Football Club and Glasgow.“Glasgow is a very difficult place, which I mentioned to Pedro last night. The decision was made with all of that knowledge.“What happened was that we didn’t kick on in season two the way we thought we would kick on.”

DO YOU FEEL WARBURTON ADJUSTED TO LIFE IN GLASGOW?

DK: “Mark’s temperament is different, as you know. It’s not a criticism. He is a little bit thin-skinned. “In an environment like Glasgow, having a thin skin is certainly not an advantage – particularly with the media.“The media gives guys a pretty hard time, sometimes on facts, sometimes on vapour. But the fact is it’s part of the Glasgow deal."If you come into that, you are going to get that.“It is a tough environment and if you are thin-skinned it is not going to be easy to adjust to that.“When there is a lot going wrong on the park, the media is going to be all over you. You have to be up for that.”

YOU APPARENTLY WENT MONTHS WITHOUT SPEAKING TO WARBURTON. DO YOU EXPECT A CLOSER RELATIONSHIP WITH CAIXINHA?

DK: “Mark was right in the sense that my relationship with Pedro will be the same. "If I am in town, I will have dinner with them and ask how they are adjusting, how their player plan is going."I want to get a sense of budget allocations, how much he wants for next season. The normal things I would speak about.“But his day-to-day relationship will be with Stewart, Andrew and the director of football when that finally comes through. “It would remain the same. With Mark, it just changed a little bit towards the end because, quite frankly, I didn’t appreciate some of the comments that I felt were getting into the media that were emanating from Mark. “So I wasn’t as confident having a confidential conversation with him, quite frankly.”

DO YOU REGRET THE WARBURTON APPOINTMENT OR GIVING HIM A NEW CONTRACT?

DK: “I don’t think it was a mistake. I think he did a lot of good at the club. “If I look at what Pedro is inheriting in terms of the academy and the structures he likes, I think Mark was very instrumental in putting that in place.“So I think he did a lot of good. I just think the step up was very difficult for him this year. “Some of his player choices – and remember they were his choices – proved difficult for him as well. "Only Mark can really answer it, but I just think it got tough for him and he didn’t see his future here.”

WHAT ABOUT THE JOEY BARTON DEBACLE..?

DK: “I wouldn’t say it was a debacle because you have to look at the decision-making process from the outset. “Was Joey Barton a high risk signing? Yes, he was. Was it something that exercised my mind and that of the board? Yes it was. “We were aware of his background and history. There were mitigating circumstances. We were told he had a young family and calmed down a little bit. “The decision with Joey was one made in the full knowledge of the risks. In my view, he could have been a great signing. "I watched him play for Burnley against Liverpool. He played the whole game and still looks like a decent player. “But if you are going to have big signings with big personalities, you have to have the ability to manage the big signings with the big personalities. “Don’t ask people’s advice and if you get it, get shirty about it. That was a decision the manager had to make. It didn’t work out. “He’s gone. It was an expensive exercise but I still don’t think it was a bad decision. We made a decision to back the manager with all of the risk. “He said: 'Please, I need you to back me on this one. This guy will make a big, big, difference.'” 

HOW EXPENSIVE DID THE BARTON DEAL TURN OUT TO BE?

DK: “I am not going to go into contracts but it was an expensive mistake. It cost the club a lot of money. “We made a decision to back Mark’s judgement. He had done well for us and that was part of his strategy to lift the team. “He felt Joey Barton would be very influential around some of the younger players. It was his decision to make. It was my job to provide the budget.” 

DID YOU WARN WARBURTON ABOUT BARTON?

DK: “We didn’t warn him. We were all aware. “Mark sat down with Joey Barton and was aware of his history. "The motivation from Mark and his team who wanted to sign Joey was that they were aware of all of this but they had chatted to him. "They had spoken to people who said he had settled down and they wanted to sign him, despite his background, because they felt he was a player who would add a lot of value to the club.“The question was did we want to, let’s say, break the bank and bring in a player of that age for that level of wages. "Our ultimate decision was that while it was against our player plan of bringing in younger players, we listened to Mark’s argument and he convinced us there would be benefits to the younger players of having someone like that in the dressing room and on the park as we step up to a higher level.“Ultimately, the board decided to back the manager. Was it the right decision? I think it was right to back the manager and we did that. “It didn’t work out but that happens to a lot of players at a lot of clubs. Look at the money Man United are spending and they are struggling to get fourth spot in the league.“It’s not just about the money. We decided to back the manager and I think it was right. I believe Joey Barton could have been a success.”

WOULD YOU NOW WARN CAIXINHA ABOUT A SIMILAR RISK?

DK: “You have to kick the tyres on a decision, but you have a choice to back the manager or not. We chose to back the manager. “I repeat, I think it was right to back the manager. It was the same with the Senderos signing. “We had done all the business we wanted to do but Mark came along at the last minute. "It wasn’t part of the budget but he really appealed and said: ‘Please, please, please, I want Senderos as well.’ We backed him. "We kicked the tyres on it – asked if he was sure, about his injuries and would he play? "Eventually, he said: ‘Please, you need to back me on this.’ And we backed him.”

ON A PERSONAL LEVEL IS WHAT HAPPENED DISAPPOINTING GIVEN YOU BACKED HIM?

DK: "Yes. He didn't owe me but I just think he came into the club and the club gave him a chance to showcase himself. “He did very well for the club and the club did very well for him. Things were going well but I think it could have been handled a lot better."If Mark really felt he wanted to get away he could have had that conversation with me or with Stewart or whoever he wanted to speak to. “He could have said 'look, it's not working, I'm finding Glasgow very tough, or whatever the reason was, and we could have planned the exit. We could have done it differently. "But I don't think it should have happened in such a ramshackle manner. But it will have no influence at all in the discussions with Pedro. “He's a new manager and we will back him. You can't say 'because that happened last time we're not going to back the new guy.' Why hire the new guy if you're not going to back him?' "The difference this time is that we had more time and went through the process quite carefully. "We looked at the various options and my mandate to the selection committee from a board and governance point of view, was for them to look at who was available and if they believed they had a permanent solution then do that. "If not let's make a temporary appointment until the end of the season. But it was about taking their time and making their decision carefully. "It's a decision for the next few years, not to see us through until the end of the season. "We could have waited until the end of the season and got Pedro for free but we felt it was important to make the investment and pay the compensation to give him time to properly prepare for next season. "Because next season is more important than the amount of compensation we paid, even though the amount of compensation could have got us another player.”

IN TERMS OF TARGETS FOR NEXT SEASON, WHAT HAVE YOU SAID TO PEDRO THAT WOULD BE ACCEPTABLE? TO CHALLENGE CELTIC STRAIGHT AWAY?

DK: “I still think that we must challenge Celtic, as I expected to do this year. Aberdeen challenged them and got to within five or six weeks. "It certainly wasn’t the race it was this year. I would like us to challenge Celtic. “Does it mean win the title next year? Of course it doesn’t. “But I would like to challenge Celtic and see some distance between ourselves and Aberdeen and Hearts because again investment will be made to do that. "We are looking to get through the Europa League qualifiers, although there is an understanding that we are not there. We will have to look at investment for that as well. “From my point of view, we are, despite the hiccup, still on track for season three. "If I go back to what I said originally, I said try and have seven players that mature from the Championship, add five to seven and then another five to seven. “We have had a hiccup now and it is up to Pedro now. He might find the five to seven, guys might start playing that we thought weren’t playing before. "He needs a number of weeks to assess that and then come back and say ‘I am happy with this, I like the look of this’. “I am expecting that in a matter of weeks so that we have some preparation in advantage of the end of the season because the Europa League qualifiers are coming up smartly at the end of the season and we need to have a team that can compete to get us through the qualifiers.”

YOU MAY NOT SEE THE HEADLINES BUT MAURICE JOHNSTON AND ALLY McCOIST HAVE SAID THAT INVESTMENT IS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN BRIDGE THE GAP. WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE TO THAT AND DO YOU THINK THERE IS NOT AN APPRECIATION OF THE INVESTMENT THAT HAS BEEN PUT IN?

DK: “I am saying the same thing myself. Investment is the only way we will bridge the gap. That is why we paid the compensation. “Other clubs couldn’t afford the compensation, we could afford it. We just had to choose whether to do it or not. “I had the choice to pay it or keep the money back for players. It is all about investment, there is no other way to bridge the gap and I fully recognise that. "That is why we are investing. That is why we are putting money into the club. There is no other way.”

WHILE YOU DON’T HAVE THE FUNDS YOU WOULD EXPECT FROM MERCHANDISE, IS IT POSSIBLE TO CHALLENGE CELTIC GIVEN THEIR FINANCIAL STATE?

DK: “Absolutely. I have budgeted, if you want to use that term, in terms of what I think we should be doing and it varies season by season."You might sell a player and get a lot of money for them, you might not get money for them. You don’t know. "On a net basis, we have got to keep investing and my financial plan does not include getting any money from retail. The retail for me is not an issue. "We are happy to put the money in to cover the retail. It is not a lot of money, it is £5m or £6m. "Celtic’s big advantage is getting an easy run at things like Champions League and Europe. "That is the big money and they are getting a run at that because we are not there to take it away from them. We can only really bridge that gap on the field.”

WHEN YOU PLACE SUCH HUGE IMPORTANCE ON EUROPEAN FOOTBALL, DOES THAT MEAN THE FUNDING AND INVESTMENT THAT WILL BE AVAILABLE PURELY FOR THE TEAM WILL HAVE TO BE HIGHER THAN IN THE TWO PREVIOUS SUMMERS?

DK: “Yes. But that was always the plan. It was always year one, year two and year three. "The fact is that we’re behind in year two – and I’m saying I think we’re behind based on the league position. “The team has underperformed relative to the quality of what’s available. Having said that there were a lot of guys who weren’t playing. There has been injuries. "There was also the fact the Joey Barton transfer didn’t work out, which was a large cost. “We didn’t get the advantage this season of outspending Aberdeen. “We were outspending them in wages but weren’t getting the guys out on the park. Senderos, Kranjcar and some of the youngsters got injured. "We were consciously outspending Aberdeen, knowing we couldn’t match Celtic yet, but it wasn’t playing for us on the park.”

DO YOU EVER SEE EXTERNAL MONEY COMING INTO THE CLUB?

DK: “At the moment I wouldn’t be looking for external investment, no. It’s easier to do that within the existing resources. "We’ve got commitments from the guys so quite frankly, until we get a normalised situation on the Sport Direct retail side it’s difficult to go to a third party investor and say ‘here is the business case,’ because they’ll ask questions of the retail and the fact is we can’t give a positive answer that would induce anyone to invest. "So I would rather stick to the type of investors I’ve got. I know I can rely on them and that they’re investing for the right reasons, and not looking for a quick return.”

THERE IS A PERCEPTION THAT YOU’RE NOT HERE ENOUGH, THAT AS THE FIGUREHEAD OF THE CLUB YOU SHOULD SPEND MORE TIME IN SCOTLAND. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THAT?

DK: “I’m not going to leave South Africa, that’s for sure. “Listen, I don’t think it’s an issue. Personally I think it’s an advantage. The only disadvantage of me not being available on a regular basis would be in the corporate hospitality side of things. “Ideally you would have the chairman at games, meeting everyone and talking to them. That would be a perfect world. “But then you have got to dial back and ask ‘what is right for the club?’  “Let’s imagine I step down, feeling there was an issue. Where would the club be in a year’s time? “Part of regime change was that if there were local people who were able to do this – and you’ll remember from interviews I did initially when I said I did not want to get involved at Rangers, I did not want to invest in Rangers. “And my position remains the same. If anyone wanted to come in and do the job better then can come in. “But I’m left in a situation that, as a South African, and despite other attempts from different rescue operations, I became the one who had to come in and do it. Did I want to do it? No I didn’t want to do it. I absolutely didn’t want to do it. “But is the club better with a local chairman? I don’t know because where would he come from?”

HAVE THERE BEEN TIMES YOU WISHED YOU HADN’T DONE IT?

DK: “No. No. Put it this way and answer your question slightly differently. "Have I had any fun or enjoyment from being involved in Rangers these part two years? Not much. "If you added it all together it would only come to about ten hours, and that was probably all after the semi-final last season. “The whole ten hours were all squashed together. “So is it fun? Of course it’s not fun. There is nothing fun about what I’m doing. There’s litigation, being sued by Sports Direct and have people trying to put me in jail. What is fun about that? “But I didn’t do it for fun, I did it because I felt at that time there was no-one else willing to step into the breach. "But I now spend a huge amount on things like litigation, and there is no fun in litigating with Mike Ashley. "There’s nothing fun about that at all, nothing enjoyable or satisfying about it. But I have to do it. “I travel to Scotland more often than I’d like to. “People say I’m absent but I’m here far more often than I’d like to be. “Sometimes I fly into London for one day to meet on litigation and fly home the same evening. "It’s actually taking up more of my time than I’d like, and it’s not fun. “But I signed up to do it.”

BUT THERE ARE RANGERS FANS WHO SAY YOU SHOULD WANT TO COME AND SEE THE TEAM MORE OFTEN…

DK: “It’s not a question of not wanting to do it, but I live in South Africa. "You can’t fly into Glasgow on a Saturday morning to watch a game. I have Rangers TV, I mean I watch every game. I don’t actually have to be at Ibrox. “Let’s put it this way, if it was a condition of me being involved in Rangers that I had to relocate to Scotland, firstly I’d be single because my wife would divorce me as she certainly wouldn’t come here. “The fact is if there was someone else who could have done it then they would have done it. But I had to do it and I’m not willing to become single!”

IT SEEMS MIKE ASHLEY BEARS A PERSONAL ANIMUS TOWARDS YOU… IS THAT YOUR IMPRESSION AND IF SO IS THAT THE BIGGEST BLOCK IN ATTEMPTS TO SOLVE THAT PROBLEM?

DK: “I don’t think there is any personal animus."I think there is only an element of that because he sees me as the personal in his way, believing the Rangers board would have been more compliant if I wasn’t there. “But I think with Mike he just doesn’t like losing. “If it wasn’t me and it was someone else showing the same level of resistance then I think Mike would feel the same way. “I don’t think his view is all about a couple of million pound. It’s about winning the fight and less about the money. "We’re all losing in that sense and under normal commercial circumstances this would have been settled some time ago. "The reason it’s not been settled is because of the level of resistance. “I’m just the focal point of that resistance which is why he was trying to put me in jail, intimidate me, sue me and threaten me. “But it’s not to an extent that we can’t do business. I think Sports Direct is still a smart retail business. "And I still think it makes sense for a club like Rangers to have a retail partner. “But it would have to be on terms that were good for the club. That’s always been the problem for Sports Direct.” 

DO YOU THINK RANGERS FANS WOULD EVER ACCEPT AN AGREEMENT WITH MIKE ASHLEY NOW?

DK: “It depends who the fans are. Who are the fans? The fans in my view are those who are the 98 per cent who are supportive of everything we are doing as opposed to the two per cent who won’t support you no matter what. "I don’t know enough about Scotland to know which supporters are supporting Rangers or Celtic, I would imagine the Celtic board is sitting pulling their hair out with the supporters as we are. "We probably have the same conversation about the same people, both thinking they are on the other side. “I’m just not close enough to that. “I just think most of the supporters if we go along to them and say ‘we now have a good deal, this is the basis of the deal’, and we explained the deal to them and the board made the decision to back the deal, I think the supporters would back it. “Some might not but I think a large, large proportion, by far the largest proportion, would love to be able to go and buy Rangers kit but will not do so unless this board says to them we have a deal we believe works for the club. “We could have done it differently, we could have put a deal in place which was better for the club than the existing deal but it still wasn’t right for the club. "We are holding on for something that’s right and when we do get it right we will say that to supporters. "There’s no reason why it wouldn’t include Sports Direct at that point because Sports Direct in my view would be commercially naïve to completely walk away. "There has to be something in it for us. The question is, can we leave something in it for them when it’s still largely in favour of the club and I don’t think that’s impossible."

HOW CLOSE?

DK: “I think it can be done soon. I’m optimistic for pre-season.”

WHAT DOES ASHLEY SAY?

DK: “All I can really say is that I do believe there is a possibility that pre-season we might be able to do a proper kit launch that we can endorse and that will have the support of all the fans. I do believe that is possible for pre-season.”

YOU SAY HE’S TRIED TO INTIMIDATE YOU BUT YOU DON’T COME ACROSS LIKE SOMEONE WHO IS EASILY INTIMIDATED…

DK: “No. For me on a scale of one to ten it doesn’t get to one. The threat of going to jail, it’s quite amusing “My family say ‘we’ll see you at Christmas, which jail will we see you at’, we genuinely laugh about it. I do this for a living. This is what I do. "I wouldn’t have taken it on at Rangers if I didn’t have the temperament and the personality. "Obviously money was required as well and I had to meet that but if I didn’t have the temperament and I wasn’t up for the fight then I wouldn’t have done it and I certainly wouldn’t be here two years later doing what I’m doing now. “I am as determined now to see this through to the end as I was two years ago. I signed up to do it. And then I’ll make a decision. “If Sports Direct is completely done and I think the club is back on a certain footing would it then make sense for me to say: ‘I’m happy to step down and not be chairman, let’s have a local chairman’."That would be my preference frankly if I could find someone to do that, a good, independent non-executive chairman.“You couldn’t invite an independent non-executive chairman on to the board: after about five minutes I would scare him away if I gave him top three fears.“But if we could get to that point I would be very, very happy to step down because I would still have shareholder influence, I don’t need to be chairman of the board to exert shareholder influence because my shareholding would still be there."But right now in my view the club still needs someone like me, whether it’s me or it’s not, to continue with the fights we have and the negotiations.

“Also with the financial prudence. I think we have done reasonably well with the interim results but it’s always easy to panic, you start getting the media saying ‘go and sign players’ and this and that. “What would have happened if we had given the management team £50m last season? Where would the £50m be? Where would it be when we now need to move on? We have to be careful how we go about this. "I think we are doing it in a realistic and measured approach, there is great flexibility in the financial decision-making. “I make the point about some of the signings. We have flexibility. We’re not constrained, because we have investors willing to put money into the club. “When Mark came and said he wanted Joey Barton and Philippe Senderos we had a choice to make: give it or don’t give it. “It wasn’t that we couldn’t give it. When we looked at the signing of Pedro we had a choice: did we want to pay that level of substantial compensation or did we want to wait two and a half months. "We had a choice to spend or not spend it. But allied to that choice is a decision by decision basis. But we have flexibility.” 

DO THE FANS APPRECIATE HOW MUCH YOU’VE SPENT? THE PERCEPTION IS THAT YOU PROMISED £30MILLION AND HAVE SPENT NOTHING.

DK: “You can’t say we have spent nothing. More than half of the £30m has been spent already. You have to split it into two. “I have a responsibility, I am the chairman of a company and that company has many shareholders. “The focus is always on the supporters because they are the key constituent and they are the one we all pay attention to. "But as a company I don’t have the right to say ‘let’s just borrow £100m’. I have to go to the other shareholders and they would say ‘we don’t want you to do that’. Why would they want that? “Mike Ashley wouldn’t allow us to do that. You’d need to pass resolutions. So I have the corporate sense and do I think from a shareholder point of view that the shareholders are appreciative of what we have done? "I think they are 100 per cent appreciative. I include Mike Ashley and I include the Easdales. “I bumped into one of the Easdales at the airport and he said: ‘We really think what you have done with the club is fantastic, we didn’t think so at first but we actually think what you have done is fantastic from a company point of view’. "And I think we have done a good job at a company level as far as the shareholders are concerned. “You then have the supporter issue. Supporters always want you to spend more money but I’m not going to be deflected by that. "I think we have to continue on the same path and we have to continue with the flexibility. "The fact Pedro has come in is a new beginning and I think Pedro will probably need more money in the summer than Mark might have needed, because Mark was still backing some of the guys he had brought in."We’ve got to have a level of flexibility. "That’s why it is very, very important from my point of view that I maintain that level of flexibility so we can make decisions: do we want to spend that money or do we not? It’s a sensible approach. “It’s certainly not going to be done because of pressure from…I don’t know who the supporters are, it always seems to come from the media and not the supporters. "But if you assume that the media reflects the supporters then I guess it is coming from them but generally the supporters from what I see are extremely understanding and grateful about what I am doing. "The pressure I think is more coming from the media, who appear to be talking on behalf of supporters.”

Link to post
Share on other sites
plumbGER

plumbGER 24,518

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, Sweetheart said:

DK: “It’s not a question of not wanting to do it, but I live in South Africa. "You can’t fly into Glasgow on a Saturday morning to watch a game. I have Rangers TV, I mean I watch every game. I don’t actually have to be at Ibrox. 

 

1 hour ago, ritchieshearercaldow said:

Can't get my head round the fact that King doesn't want to be here and he has no interest in watching games, funny kind of Rangers man.

Thats not what he said in the interview.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Sweetheart

Sweetheart 8,458

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, plumbGER said:

 

Thats not what he said in the interview.

I C&P'd the article word for word, so that it was ready to go into the reader.

BUT THERE ARE RANGERS FANS WHO SAY YOU SHOULD WANT TO COME AND SEE THE TEAM MORE OFTEN…

DK: “It’s not a question of not wanting to do it, but I live in South Africa.

"You can’t fly into Glasgow on a Saturday morning to watch a game. I have Rangers TV, I mean I watch every game. I don’t actually have to be at Ibrox.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/768107/dave-king-on-thin-skinned-mark-warburton-pedro-caixinhas-title-target-and-why-hell-never-return-to-scotland-read-every-word-of-rangers-chiefs-sunsport-qa/

Link to post
Share on other sites
calio

calio 688

Posted
Posted

That's a decent enough interview, answers most valid criticisms well enough imo.

Interesting that he mentions the 2%rs in relation to Ashley, could the ashleyites actually switch their stance if Dave King managed a retail negotiation with SD?

That would be the flop of all flips.

Link to post
Share on other sites
plumbGER

plumbGER 24,518

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Sweetheart said:

I C&P'd the article word for word, so that it was ready to go into the reader.

BUT THERE ARE RANGERS FANS WHO SAY YOU SHOULD WANT TO COME AND SEE THE TEAM MORE OFTEN…

DK: “It’s not a question of not wanting to do it, but I live in South Africa.

"You can’t fly into Glasgow on a Saturday morning to watch a game. I have Rangers TV, I mean I watch every game. I don’t actually have to be at Ibrox.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/768107/dave-king-on-thin-skinned-mark-warburton-pedro-caixinhas-title-target-and-why-hell-never-return-to-scotland-read-every-word-of-rangers-chiefs-sunsport-qa/

Yeah, i was using your c&p article to reply to RSC.

Not to you, sorry for the confusion.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Corky True Legend

Corky True Legend 2,682

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, calio said:

That's a decent enough interview, answers most valid criticisms well enough imo.

Interesting that he mentions the 2%rs in relation to Ashley, could the ashleyites actually switch their stance if Dave King managed a retail negotiation with SD?

That would be the flop of all flips.

Here we go again. If you are not up King's arse you must support Ashley. What a load of shite. I sincerely hope that a deal can be struck as the only loser at present is Rangers FC. I think Ashley is a cunt but I also think King is a cunt. I also note that he said that he had no input as to the appointment of the new manager so, if Pedro does manage to turn things around, don't come on here praising King for the appointment. Finally, to my mind this puts to bed any allegations that he has an affinity with Liverpool as, if he had, The Sun is the last rag he would have spoken to. After this, I don't think he will be able to show his face at Anfield.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Upcoming Events

    • St Mirren v Rangers
      28 April 2024 11:30 Until 13:30
      0  
      St Mirren v Rangers
      The SMiSA Stadium
      Scottish Premiership
      Live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football
×
×
  • Create New...