Dave King reveals his big Celtic fear fuelling Rangers return bid as he disputes Graeme Souness gap claim

Dave King admits he fears Celtic overtaking Rangers as the world’s most successful club.

The Ibrox club have boasted of that global status with branding around the stadium but their arch-rivals drew level with the rivals last season on 118 major trophies and are one short of equalling their world record 55 haul for domestic league titles.

King launched a bid for a sensational return to the Light Blues to replace John Bennett who is stepping down as chairman due to health reasons with former director John Gilligan – who helped King rescue the club in 2015 – taking on the role on an interim basis.

South Africa-based King wants to put a two-year plan in place and admits he has real fears over this season hitting the skids in the next month when the Europa League campaign gets underway. Rangers legend Graeme Souness recently said on talkSPORT that he didn’t believe there was a huge gulf between the Light Blues and Celtic but King appeared on the same radio station to dispute that.

He said: “I have the utmost respect for Graeme and he knows a lot more about football than me but there is a very significant gap on and off the pitch between us and Celtic. My fear, longer term as a fan, isn’t about stopping 10-in-a-row which was my previous target. One thing we do hang onto is we are still the most successful club in the world and if we slip too long we might lose that as well.

“There is a level of urgency. This season is slipping. I’m talking as a supporter. It will be very challenging with European games coming up and they could be in a very difficult place by October. There’s no leadership. There are two main categories. In the time we went through the rebuild of the club when it had been hollowed out by the Easdales and the