Dave King: Rangers on brink of new era ahead of EGM

Dave King has travelled to Glasgow for Friday's EGM

Dave King says Rangers are on the brink of a "new era" as he stated over £20m will be needed to stabilise the club.

King has flown into Glasgow for Friday's extraordinary general meeting at which he and two others are expected to replace the current board.

Chief executive Derek Llambias and finance director Barry Leach are the only two remaining board members.

"Tomorrow is a turning point, not in the history of the club but in the future of the club," said King.

"It is a chance to get rid of a very, very difficult couple of years.

"This is genuinely a new era for the club going forward.

"What we will offer [Rangers fans] is transparency, accountability and a road. The road might be tough and it might be long but we'll all know where we're going.

"The club is in quite poor shape.

"Between myself and the other investors, we've certainly got sufficient [funds] to take it forward in the medium term.

"I've said about £20m [is needed] in the short term. There's probably other areas of the club where money's got to be spent as well. I think it will be north of £20m in the short-to-medium term.

"The proposals that I gave to the board, certainly when I came over in November, was that I would take on 50% of the funding and I expected other individuals to take the other 50% and that is where your [businessmen like] Paul Murray, George Letham, Brian Kennedy and Douglas Parks all come in.

"I'm looking at a 50-50 split but I don't see me as carrying this whole burden."

Since King called the EGM with resolutions to replace the current board with himself, Paul Murray and John Gilligan, chairman David Somers and James Easdale have resigned from the board.

"I expect the resolutions to be passed if the general meeting goes ahead, although there still remains the possibility they might concede before then," explained King at Glasgow Airport on Thursday evening.

Rangers, having come up from the bottom tier where they were placed in 2012 following financial problems, are struggling for form in the Scottish Championship and are over 20 points behind leaders Hearts, who are closing in on the title and the one automatic promotion route to the Premiership.

Should the Ibrox side finish second, third or fourth, they will enter the promotion play-offs, which culminates in a two-legged final with the team finishing second bottom in the top flight.

"Stage one is that we've got to, within a very short period of time, have Rangers as the number two club in Scotland, which clearly they're not at the moment," King said. "I think that can happen very, very quickly.

"Thereafter, the gap between ourselves and Celtic - certainly financially - will take a longer period to bridge.

"But being a solid number two and getting back into Europa League football is something I would imagine would happen quite quickly."