Rangers chairman David King will hand the next Ibrox manager a multi-million-pound transfer fund after promising to spend whatever it takes to guarantee the club secures promotion to the Scottish Premiership next season.
Gers face another 12 months in the Championship after their humiliating 6-1 play-off defeat against Motherwell and the task now for King is to find the man who can lead them back to the top flight and then help the manager recruit a new team after 11 out-of-contract players were told they can leave.
While King has not ruled handing caretaker Stuart McCall a new contract, the Castlemilk-born businessman did reveal Rangers have been in touch with five candidates, with an announcement likely next week.
He said: “There are five realistic candidates who might fit the bill. It is very important we balance the obvious urgency of making an appointment with the need to get it right.
“We need to make an appointment that sees us through for the next three years.”
The Johannesburg-based businessman – back in Glasgow to launch a 5% increase in the club’s season ticket prices – had previously claimed it could take £30million to put the club on an even keel with Celtic.
Now he says the spread of that money will have to be front-loaded to ensure the club does not let another year fritter away.
“I think we will need money now because we will need to beef up the squad,” he said.
“So there will be a fairly substantial investment required in the next couple of months from me and the other investors.
“But if you want to look at the funding plan, it is to spend whatever it takes to win the Championship next year and have at least the nucleus of a squad to move up to the Premiership the year after.”
He added: “The mandate to the manager is going to be to get players that could compete in the Premiership.”
For many, King’s words will bear a resemblance to former owner David Murray’s infamous claim that “for every fiver Celtic spent, he’d put down a tenner”.
It was that kind of flagrant spending which led to Rangers eventually sinking into a financial blackhole.
But King insists the new board will have to live dangerously if they are to solve the club’s current loss-making problems.
“We’re going to increase running costs at the club,” he said. “The idea is to have it sustainable by the end of the three-year period – not during it.”
While King claims Rangers will spend big this summer, he refused to put a figure on how much he would put into the club as he admitted factors such as their controversial Sports Direct retail deal and the £5million loan taken out from the sportswear company’s owner, Mike Ashley, could put hurdles in his way.
“That hasn’t changed,” he said when asked if £30million was still the sum required to end the club’s financial problems.
“The only thing that has changed in my thoughts over the last couple of weeks is the acceleration of that.
“I think it is very important that we win the league this season, so it’s probably the right thing to overinvest this season and make sure we do comfortably come out of the league we’re in and also have a strong squad going into next season.”
Former Brentford manager Mark Warburton has held talks with Rangers about replacing McCall but King admitted other managers had now been turned off the idea of spending another year in the Championship.