Steven Gerrard was 'kicked OUT' of Rangers as Dave King claims broken promises sparked Aston Villa move

Dave King was the man who set Rangers on the road to 55. But the former chairman fears the directors he left to run the Ibrox boardroom are leaving the path clear for Celtic to march on to 57 and beyond.

When King successful snatched control of the Light Blues away from Mike Ashley in 2015, the name of the game was all about halting the Hoops’ charge towards 10 successive titles. It took six years but Gers finally got the better of their bitter rivals as Steven Gerrard’s Invincibles delivered the crown the Ibrox faithful had been longing for.

King wasn’t at Ibrox to see the wild celebrations unfold, however. He had stepped down the year before in order to focus on protecting his South African businesses from the Covid pandemic. The breakneck speed of his departure shocked his former allies and some remain as furious today about being left in the lurch with a multi-million pound hole in the balance sheet as they did back when he announced his resignation as chairman on March 27, 2020.

But having seen what King and Gerrard both felt was the chance to re-establish Rangers as the country’s dominant force go squandered, the Castlemilk-born tycoon is in no mood to apologise. Instead, he believes it is time that those he blames for allowing Celtic - who won their 54th title last season - to close in on Rangers’ title benchmark to step aside.

In a blistering attack, King said: “The faceless names on the present board have presided over the hollowing out of our club. The significant cash received from supporters and from the sale of Calvin Bassey, Joe Aribo, and Nathan Patterson have been wasted on the poor recruitment of managers and players, poor cost control and oversight of infrastructure projects which severely compromised