FORMER Ibrox chairman Dave King says complacent Celtic must look at their own failings as Rangers prepare to shatter the 10 in a row dream by clinching their first title in a decade.

The South African-based businessman reckons Celtic failed to fully capitalise when Rangers were at their weakest after being forced to work their way through the divisions following liquidation in 2012.

He had warned three years ago that Celtic would ‘fold like a pack of cards’ once the Ibrox men won their 55th title because of their cost base.

As Steven Gerrard prepares to deliver and justify that statement, King also reveals for the first time the chance meeting that led to the former Liverpool captain taking over at Ibrox.

King said: “Looking at the performance of Celtic in their build-up to nine in a row I don’t think they were taking full advantage of the extra resources they had at that time.

“They had no real competition. Aberdeen ran them close a couple of seasons but with Celtic’s resources even that shouldn’t have happened.

“I just felt if we could have real go at them and get in their faces then they would fold like a pack of cards.

“We just had to get in there and start competing with them.

“They’d had it too easy. They were in a league of their own effectively for nearly six seasons because of absence of Rangers.

“So I Iooked at their European performances and foreign teams weren’t giving them the respect they got in Scotland so I felt if we could get in their faces they would struggle.”

Rangers were trudging along under the temporary stewardship of Graeme Murty following the disastrous tenure of Pedro Caixinha pondering their next move, when the identity of their next manager inadvertently presented itself.

Gerrard was a guest at the 3-2 defeat by Celtic on March 11, 2018 and King sought his analysis of events.

“I went over to him and asked him what he felt and he gave me some thoughts about players and so on,” said King.

“I asked him if he was missing football and if he had thoughts about going into management and he said he was just waiting for the right opportunity.

“And I said, ‘maybe we’ll give you a buzz one day’ and we left it at that.

“I never thought about it again for a few days but, of course, we were looking for a new manager. We had a lot of experienced applicants, but not someone I felt who was right to get us started again.

“So, I told Mark Allen the Steven Gerrard story. It was as casual as that and then we started exploring it before speaking to Liverpool.

“I spoke to Kenny Dalglish and he said we needed experience because he felt Rangers were still trying to dig themselves out of a hole.

“But he said if you want to be bold and you want to go with someone who doesn’t have experience then I would back Steven 100 per cent.”

“So I asked Kenny if I could come over for Liverpool’s Champions League game with Roma so I could meet Steven.

“We had a good meeting and I explained what we wanted and he talked about what he would want and it was a very good discussion.

“So, it was a bold decision but he had so many attributes, including media savviness which is so important in Glasgow.

“As I’m sitting right now, I’m delighted how things have worked out.”

Dave King was talking to the Rangers Connection podcast.