Rangers in crisis? John Gilligan douses flames, lifts lid on investment, Philippe Clement future and no Celtic blinkers

Now interim Rangers chairman following John Bennett's resignation on health grounds, Gilligan was speaking about a diatribe from someone he knows well. Dave King once held the title Gilligan now has on a permanent basis and had the 72-year-old as a lieutenant. There is still respect between the two but King now wants in again, last week calling Rangers "a club in crisis". Gilligan completely refutes such a notion.

"What exactly is he saying that is not good?" continued Gilligan. "What exactly is he saying that is going wrong? Give us a plan and tell me. If Dave had some terrific plan to tell me where we are all going wrong, then we would read that plan and we would consider it.”

Gilligan has experience of what a club looks like when it has gone wrong. He picked up Rangers in 2015 from the Mike Ashley reign. “It is almost ridiculous to compare it,” remarked Gilligan. “It would make my cry rather than laugh. You cannot describe how low we were in 2015 and what we inherited in terms of all sorts of aspects of the club. It is unrecognisable since that day. Listen, every day at Rangers Football Club is a challenge, the level of expectancy is enormous. As a fan I am part of that problem. But it is just ridiculous to compare it, to even begin to compare it.”

Nevertheless, King has done a lot of talking in the press the past few days. He wants to be chairman for two years, wants an emergency general meeting, has accused the current board of being "only in it for the jacket and tie and doesn't actually want to do any real work". King reckons Rangers need fresh investment to the tune of £50 million. His comments have clearly been met with short shrift by those already in as directors. King is a major shareholder but, as yet, does not wield significant power.

Trailing Celtic by a sizeable margin on and off the pitch, Rangers do require to shift through the gears. The gap is getting bigger. Celtic have £72 million in cash reserves and recent trophies still glittering in the cabinet. While Rangers were spending just over £3m on deadline day for Nadim Bajrami, Celtic splashed £18m on three players. They are on different levels right now.

Without a chief executive since the summer - and recently without a home due to construction work at Ibrox - Rangers now also need a new chairman. Gilligan said it is a massive honour to head up Rangers presently and will stay on for as long as is required". To his credit, he stepped where Bennett did not and held a public press conference just a few weeks into his stewardship. A healthy media presence attended Ibrox to hear his thoughts.

"I am really pleased, honoured," said Gilligan on the new role. "Mrs Gilligan is not too happy but I am honoured, it’s a privilege. I am delighted to come in after John had to step away, because he is a personal friend.

"It's an honour to help, very much so. I wear two hats because I am a supporter and the chairman, but now I am chairman I need to take the supporter hat off and focus on doing the job. The main priority is to get a chief executive. We are working on that right away. I can stay on indefinitely, I am expecting a few months and a chairman to come in too.

"There is a plan and I am here to bring stability to the enforcement of that plan. We have been distracted terribly by having to play at Hampden for a few months and a lot of people forget that the original objective here was to create a great facility for our disabled supporters.

"It wasn’t a renovation, it wasn’t a reconstruction. Unfortunately the timing was wrong, we got that part of it wrong, and we had to go to Hampden. But everything is in place, the manager is in place and we are ready to keep going. We see some fruits for our labour now with some of the young players coming through and I am here to bring stability and help find a CEO."

King believes Rangers need £50m to be successful and that fresh money is required. Gilligan was steadfast on new finance. “There is fresh investment coming into the club," he said. "But in fairness Dave is talking about fresh investment, but he doesn’t want to invest. I am not quite sure where he means the investment is going to come from. There will be investment.

"The current investors have invested considerably over the years and are willing to do so again. We are open to anyone who approaches us on investment. We get approaches from all over the world from various sources. But it has to be the right people and the right conditions and for the right amount of shares. We don’t want one person owning the club.”

Celtic's strength makes streams of revenue vital. “History tells you that happens," Gilligan mused over playing second fiddle in Glasgow. "Sometimes we are ahead, sometimes Celtic are ahead. At the moment we are chasing. There is no argument there, I am not stupid enough to say otherwise. But we will keep chasing.”

Asked how the gap can be bridged, Gilligan continued: “Player trading is the biggest success and qualification for the Champions League. It is a kind of catch 22 – player trading gets you income, Champions League gets you income. When you fail to get it it is difficult because Scottish football’s level of support, TV, sponsorship etc, you just can’t compare it to England’s. So it is always a challenge, of course it is. It is all about the squad and bringing in players and winning your matches and moving forward.”

Manager Philippe Clement is the man tasked with making sure matters on the pitch are taken care of. Ge retains the support of the board despite Bennett's departure as chairman. Gilligan met the Belgian last week and came away from those talks confident.

“I was very impressed with the manager," he said. "We had a long talk with myself and [fellow director] George Letham. He was very impressive. The long and short of it is I don’t talk about football myself, the manager is in charge, we’re here to operate the business and the manager is supported to operate the training academy and football side of things. We will never interfere in that.”

It was put to Gilligan that Clement may have some dissenters in the stands. Does the board fully back him? “Absolutely yes,” was the rapid response. “Famous last words of endearment!”

Gilligan continued on Clement: “The one thing I will say is the manager had been put forward as a spokesperson for the club which put him under undue pressure at times because it’s an area of the business that’s not his. Hopefully I or someone else will pick that up.

"The manager was very impressive. Personally he inspired a bit of confidence. He's a very intelligent man and knows what he is trying to do, what he's trying to do for the club."

Rangers fans hope the same can be said for the latest man at the helm at board level. A vital few months await Gilligan and Co.