FEW people appreciate just how much of a difference Dave King and his associates have made since they seized control at Ibrox nearly five years ago as much as Rangers legend Ian Durrant.
Durrant was a first team coach at the Govan club during their financial meltdown back in 2012 and worked on the backroom staff throughout their troubled tenure in the lower leagues after that.
He has been staggered by the transformation they have undergone since those difficult days and buoyed by the fact they are now, for the first time in nine seasons, vying with their city rivals Celtic for silverware once again.
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The former midfielder feels the contribution of South Africa-based businessman King, who announced at the Rangers AGM yesterday that he would be standing down as chairman next year, has been immeasurable and should not go unnoticed.
“They got the right people in when Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan took over,” he said. “They are Rangers men at heart and just want to see the club getting back to what it used to be. He came in and steadied the ship.
“He got Steven Gerrard and his backroom staff in and everything seems to be going in the right direction. He has signed £7 million players and has built a good squad. They have backed the manager to the hilt when he has asked for things.
“But Rangers are now challenging Celtic and we will find out in a couple of weeks (in the Betfred Cup final) what they have got.
“We all know the significance of this year’s league. He has backed the manager and if the manager goes on and wins the league I think there will maybe be a statue of Dave King getting put up somewhere.”
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King is a divisive character who polarises opinion among Scottish football fans, but Durrant knows from personal experience that he is a vast improvement on some of the individuals who occupied the Rangers boardroom before him.
The Nine-In-A-Row stalwart was thankful that then manager Ally McCoist, not him, had to deal with those who held power during that period.
“It was carnage,” he said. “People were losing their jobs. Football was immaterial. You saw the club you loved slowly sinking. Nothing could be done.
“I was in a fortunate position with Kenny (assistant McDowall) in that we were doing a lot of the coaching. Coisty was the one getting dragged over. He was called to meetings with Imran Ahmad, Brian Stockbridge and Charles Green on a daily basis.
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“You could see the colour physically draining out of his body when he was coming back after training. We just had to get on with it in the hope that we would turn the corner. But every day it was getting worse and worse. Coisty’s health took a bit of a battering. It was terrible.”
Durrant feels that Liverpool and England great Gerrard, whose team are level on points with Celtic at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership and will take on the Parkhead club in the Betfred Cup final on Sunday week, has been lucky to have King and his cohorts in charge.
“Throughout my time Rangers always had people on board who wanted what was good for Rangers,” he said. “They were always professionally run – apart from for a couple of years and they paid the consequences for that.
“Then we had that spell where we had people who wanted what was good for them. The club nearly died. It nearly went down. The Three Bears, as they were called, came in and steadied the ship.”
Durrant admitted he was shocked to learn that King will be stepping down as chairman, but is confident the Ibrox hierarchy will be able to cope with his departure.
“They will have a plan about where to take Rangers now,” he said. “They will be looking to win something this season. That is another step forward. Whoever comes in now will have a healthy club.”
Ian Durrant was speaking at a media day as Five Star Events and 1st Star Events donated £10,000 to Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity from funds raised at their respective 2019 sporting events.
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