THE target has always been 55 for Dave King. That is still his ambition for Rangers despite the league flag returning to Ibrox this term.

It has been a season dominated by talk of ten-in-a-row and Rangers’ first silverware success in a decade. While many have lapped up the drama, King believes the campaigns leading up to this historic one haven’t been good for Scottish football.

When the South Africa-based businessman was on the Ibrox board first time around during Sir David Murray’s reign, the Old Firm would spend big in the Scottish football arms race.

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The giants of our game went head-to-head in an era of multi-million pound signings and dramatic finales to remarkable campaigns.

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The outcome this term is the one that King has been dreaming of. Six years after he rescued Rangers, he has seen Steven Gerrard deliver the most important title in their history.

But the former Ibrox chairman reckons Scottish football will benefit now that there is no Old Firm disparity on or off the park. Once again, it is an equal fight for supremacy.

“I think we have to make sure we win more leagues than we don’t win,” King said of the challenge facing the Rangers board now that they are champions rather than challengers.

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“Nothing is guaranteed. If you ask me in a perfect world, I would like Scottish football to be competitive. If Rangers won 55 per cent of league titles going forward, I would be very happy with that.

“I don’t think nine-in-a-row has worked for anybody. It doesn’t work for supporters. It becomes boring – nine-in-a-row, ten-in-a-row.

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“Ideally for me, I’d like every season to begin with uncertainty about who is going to win the league and I want Rangers to win 55 per cent of them.

“I’d like a very healthy Scottish football environment, with Rangers winning the league more often than not and having good runs in Europe.

“I think we should be a feared club in the Europa League. When it comes to the Champions League, I would like to think that, some of the time, we could get through the group stages.

 

 

“Not every season. I think that’s the level of ambition you can have for Scottish football until circumstances change.

“In terms of the current European structure, it’s unrealistic to expect Rangers – or Celtic for that matter – to beyond the group stages every season. What we have to do is still concentrate on winning our domestic league.”

The title win this term has completed ‘The Journey’ for Rangers. From the depths of the Third Division, they now sit proudly top of the Premiership.

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It marks the end of an era of dominance and unprecedented success for Celtic and they find themselves in an unfamiliar situation heading into the new campaign.

Dominic McKay will replace Peter Lawwell as chief executive, but the identities of the incoming Sporting Director and a manager to take over from Neil Lennon have yet to be revealed.

 

 

For so long, it was Rangers who seemed to be in a constant state of flux. Now Celtic have to go back to the drawing board and rebuild to catch a superior rival.

“I actually think that we can,” King said when asked if Rangers can capitalise on Celtic’s instability this summer. “If I look at what is happening on the other side of the city, clearly they are not taking this as being a one-off.

“They could say it was a one off, they had a bad season and that happens and they would regroup and go again.

 

 

"But they haven’t done that. It has been kind of lifeboat stuff and because of that and because of the changes they are going to go through…

“I have been through that and see what it is like when you go through managerial changes and executive changes and it is not easy.

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"There will be player changes, there will be pressure on their financial resources that hasn’t been there before, they won’t have access to Champions League money that they had previously.

“So I see this as being a very, very challenging season for Celtic because they will want to stop us defending the title. I think it is going to be very interesting to see how they respond to the challenge because there is no merit in looking at Rangers’ performance this season and saying it is a one-off. It is not as if Rangers have sneaked through.

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“The level of points that Celtic could reasonably get at the end of the season, that would win the title in three of the last five seasons. Rangers are so far ahead of that and they have decisions to make on their side. Irrespective of the decisions, there is a level of uncertainty on the other side that I think can only benefit Rangers.”

With Rangers’ 55th title in the trophy cabinet and their place in history enshrined, Gerrard’s side can now look forward to the opportunities their success has earned them.

The landscape of European football has changed dramatically since Rangers last competed at the highest level on the continent a decade ago.

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Rangers have shown they are up for the fight in the Europa League but will now have to punch well above their weight if they are to compete against the biggest and best. In time, that door may close for Scotland’s title winners.

“Absolutely,” King said when asked if he feared the prospect of a closed shop Champions League. “The idea of the Champions League continuing to just entrench the rich clubs… for the guys who are interested in the money, that might make sense for them, but it just cannot be good for football and it certainly can’t be good for Scottish football.

 

 

“I did have involvement in the Atlantic League but it’s something that really is very much a forward position. It’s not going to happen in the next five years. Our planning is one, two, maximum three years ahead.

“Will it happen eventually? Yeah, probably, because money will move it in a certain direction. But in the meantime, if we are looking at what Rangers need to do over the next two or three years, I think it’s going to be very much domestic football and doing the best we can in Europe.”