DAVE KING believes Rangers are within ‘tangible reach’ of becoming a dominant domestic force in Scottish football once again.
The Light Blues have launched their season ticket renewals for next season as Steven Gerrard prepares for his second campaign at Ibrox.
He will do so having failed to deliver any silverware this term after his side lost to Aberdeen in the Betfred Cup and Scottish Cup. Rangers are 11 points adrift of Old Firm rivals Celtic in the Premiership and Neil Lennon will clinch an eighth successive title in the coming weeks.
Ibrox chairman King is confident the Gers are on the right track, however, as he prepares to sanction another summer of investment to increase the strength and depth of Gerrard’s ranks.
Writing in his letter to supporters, King said: “I begin by again offering my most sincere thanks to each and every Rangers supporter for the continued commitment and understanding that you have shown throughout the recent rebuilding of our Club.
“It was never going to be easy and it is extremely gratifying to have witnessed the progress that has been made over the last year. We are now within tangible reach of Rangers becoming the dominant force in Scottish football again.
“Much of the progress on the pitch can be attributed to Mark Allen, Steven Gerrard and their respective management teams.
“Turning to a young manager was a risk but it was one that Mark and the Board felt we should take because of Steven Gerrard’s football pedigree.
READ MORE: McKenna says Ball red card shows Aberdeen get unfair treatment versus Celtic
“Steven’s passion, professionalism and winning mentality has been inculcated throughout the football activities at all levels and we have seen strong benefits from this. Of significance was our first, strong European campaign for many years.
“The team was heroic at times in battling through four very tough qualifiers and went on to narrowly miss making the knock-out stages.
“However, the inconsistency that inevitably comes with another new management team and a new group of players was also evident. We saw periods where we were rightly regarded as title contenders, followed by periods of varying quality.
“However, despite these periods of inconsistency it is clear that the playing squad is significantly stronger than in recent seasons and, importantly for future transfer activity, the overall value of the squad has greatly increased.
“This is a tribute to the work that Mark, Steven and their management teams have done to improve the process behind player recruitment and their overhaul of the training methods and the general wellbeing of the football squad at all levels and age groups.
“The team requires a further upgrade and the Board will continue to back Mark and Steven, who fully understand that Rangers must win titles and cups and plans are already in place for recruitment in the summer window.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel