Friday 24 March 2017 16:02, UK
New Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha has the full support of the club's board to invest this summer in order to progress domestically and in Europe, according to chairman Dave King.
Caixinha was appointed a fortnight ago, replacing Mark Warburton at Ibrox, and the Portuguese met Rangers' South-African based chairman for the first time on Wednesday to discuss plans for strengthening the playing squad.
"Pedro will look at the squad, decide on his player plan and we will back that," said King.
"I like him as a person. I like his confidence, his personality, his temperament, his mentality.
"If you want to call it a football philosophy, we had a good discussion around the different dimensions he might bring, if we think that the team has maybe been a bit one-dimensional over the last period.
"It is up to Pedro now. He needs a number of weeks to assess that and then come back and say 'I am happy with this, I like the look of this'.
"I am expecting that in a matter of weeks, so that we have some preparation in advance of the end of the season, because the Europa League qualifiers are coming up and we need to have a team that can compete to get us through the qualifiers.
"If we fail in Europe, we are going to have to put more money in to get us to that position. But it is pretty much a season by season basis."
King made it clear he was disappointed with Rangers' progress this season - the club is currently third in the Scottish Premiership, 33 points behind champions-elect Celtic. King also claims that Warburton underachieved with the budget he was given this season.
"What happened was that we didn't kick on in the way that we thought we would kick on," continued King.
"We are behind where I thought we would be on the field. It was always year one, year two and year three.
"The fact is that we're behind in year two - and I'm saying I think we're behind based on the league position.
"I still think we must challenge Celtic, as I expected to do this year.
"Does it mean win the title next year? Of course it doesn't.
"But I would like to challenge Celtic and see some distance between ourselves and Aberdeen and Hearts, because again investment will be made to do that.
"We are looking to get through the Europa League qualifiers, although there is an understanding that we are not there. We will have to look at investment for that as well.
"But we have to move on and start competing in Europe. The sooner we start competing in Europe and start competing successfully with Celtic, the more chance normalised revenues would allow us to continue on that basis.
"The team has underperformed relative to the quality of what's available. Having said that, there were a lot of guys who weren't playing. There have been injuries. There was also the fact the Joey Barton transfer didn't work out, which was a large cost.
"We didn't get the advantage this season of outspending Aberdeen. We were outspending them in wages but weren't getting the guys out on the park.
"(Philippe) Senderos, (Niko) Kranjcar and some of the youngsters got injured. We were consciously outspending Aberdeen, knowing we couldn't match Celtic yet, but it wasn't happening for us on the park."
King promised investment of at least £30m when his consortium seized control of the Rangers boardroom two years ago - and he says that investment is on track to be increased. Two weeks ago, former manager Ally McCoist said the club required "serious investment" if they wished to consider challenging Celtic in the near future.
"I am saying the same thing myself," King added. "Investment is the only way we will bridge the gap.
"That is why we paid the compensation (for Caixinha). We could have waited until the end of the season and got Pedro for free but we felt it was important to make the investment and pay the compensation to give him time to properly prepare for next season.
"Other clubs couldn't afford the compensation, we could afford it. We just had to choose whether to do it or not.
"I had the choice to pay it or keep the money back for players. Next season is more important than the amount of compensation we paid, even though the amount of compensation could have got us another player."
"We have spent far more than half of the £30m already. I think £30m is not enough. I think it is going to be more than £30m. But what the figure is at the end of the day will depend on how well we do.
"I have budgeted, if you want to use that term, in terms of what I think we should be doing and it varies season by season. You might sell a player and get a lot of money for them, you might not get money for them. You don't know.
"On a net basis, we have got to keep investing and my financial plan does not include getting any money from retail. The retail for me is not an issue.
"We are happy to put the money in to cover the retail. It is not a lot of money, it is £5m or £6m. Celtic's big advantage is getting an easy run at things like Champions League and Europe.
"That is the big money and they are getting a run at that because we are not there to take it away from them. We can only really bridge that gap on the field."
Sky customers can now upgrade to Sky Sports and get 12 months for just £18 per month. Upgrade now!
