Friday 6 March 2015 00:03, UK
Dave King has promised Rangers fans a regime of 'transparency and accountability' if his team win control of the Ibrox boardroom on Friday.
King, a former director of oldco Rangers, says he has already been told he will win a 'landslide victory' at the EGM when he hopes to oust the remaining two directors on the board of the Scottish Championship side.
Current CEO Derek Llambias and finance director Barry Leach have steadfastly refused to resign their positions, meaning the financially-strapped club must pay tens of thousands of pounds to stage the gathering at their stadium in the south of Glasgow on Friday morning.
King has already said he will not immediately take up the post of chairman, preferring Paul Murray, like himself a former director of the oldco, to assume the role on a temporary basis while he awaits the green light from the authorities over his 'fit and proper person' credentials.
But the South Africa-based businessman, who will also be joined on the new board by Glasgow businessman John Gilligan, believes the outcome of Friday's meeting is a foregone conclussion and once the vote is rubber-stamped will begin his quest of rebuilding the club.
Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports News HQ's Jim White, he said: "I am very excited for the first time in a couple of years. Everyone who has followed this saga will know I have made numerous attempts to try and get in a position where we could get the right structure on the board, the right people on the board, to take the club forward
'Irrelevant'
"I think from the fans point of view we have some really, really tough years ahead. I think there was a lack of direction and one of the things I have tried to fight against is the 'noise level'.
"If I look at all the stuff that has happened over the years, even last night with WH Ireland (the company who resigned as Rangers' nominated advisor), probably about 95 per cent of the stresses and strains the fans have gone through and stuff they have read in the newspapers and media is what I call noise level. It has always been irrelevant.
"It will be a long road but as long as we travel that road together I guarantee the fans absolute transparency and accountability."
"The main gameplan now, and the main thing I have stayed focused on, is to try and get regime change and try and install on the Rangers board some like-minded individuals who know what the club is about and who know what the history is about.
"People who will give the fans hope that we will take the club forward into something they will recognise more as the real Rangers as opposed to what we have seen over the last couple of years.
"I feel we are at that point now. It has been a long road but I am asking the fans to remain calm to remain steady because after tomorrow we will finally have a direction.
"It will be a long road but as long as we travel that road together I guarantee the fans absolute transparency and accountability and if there is one thing that has been missing in Rangers over the past couple of years it is not just the ethos and the level of respect, but accountability and transparency, which has been completely absent.
"The fans need to hear this and they should be demanding this. Rangers fans have sat on the side and watched other people playing games with their club, and I say games in the true sense of the word. It has been games.
'Exciting times'
"We have seen a number of people in responsible postions who have really played to their own agenda and the fans have really sat on the sideline. It is my belief if it wasn't for the fans voting with their feet and boycotting games we wouldn't be where we are today.
"They deserve a huge amount of credit for their contribution to what I am hoping is a new and exciting time for the club."
But King, who invested £20m of his own money into Rangers prior to it being consigned to liquidation in June 2012, has warned the fans there is no quick fix claiming it will 'take years to get anywhere near Celtic'.
"Knowing that I got around 90 per cent of 12,000 fans' backing is a great thrill for me, and I know I will not be walking this road alone. I am ready for this challenge.
"It will be a little daunting as the one thing that is clear to me is that the club is broken. Not just the team, but the stadium, the infrastructure, whe whole value system within the club has disappeared and that is why it is really critical that we hit the ground running and inject a bit of much-needed energy."
Incumbent directors Llambias and Leach have already indicated they will not attend the meeting, but King would not be drawn on their future roles at the club post-Friday.
"Derek Llambias and Barry Leach will be removed as directors on Friday but they still have executive responsibilities which we have to separate from that and that will be a discussion for another time.
"Looking ahead we have a couple of tough years. It's not just money. For Rangers to become fairly quickly the second top club in Scotland could be achieved at fairly short notice but there is a very, very substantial gap between Rangers and Celtic.
"I think for us to narrow that gap - as we surely will do - has to be done on a judicious basis. We must not ever get into the situation where we put Rangers into financial distress."
"I think for us to narrow that gap - as we surely will do - has to be done on a judicious basis. We must not ever get into the situation where we put Rangers into financial distress."
And King admits one of his first moves as the new chairman, will be to sit around a table with officials of Sports Direct to discuss the current deal they have over the club's merchandising.
Mike Ashley, the owner of the sports equipment giant who has a near nine per cent shareholding in Rangers, has previously refused to meet with King but the prospective new chairman is not ruling out a get-together once his feet are under the boardroom table.
"I certainly envisage holding conversations with Sports Direct," he said. "Mike Ashley has refused to speak to me before but I certainly think there are a lot of discussions I expect to have with Sports Direct once we look at their contract and understand what is going on behind them. I would be very, very surprised if there was not some level of negotiation."
