DAVE KING admits Rangers are ‘probably a year away’ from being able to attract outside investment via a share issue as the Ibrox board pledge to continue funding the club.

King and his fellow directors will stump up £5million to pay off the Sports Direct loan and provide the £2.5million Rangers need to reach the end of the season.

Plans to float Rangers International Football Club plc on the ISDX market were put on the back burner earlier this year and King reckons there would be little appetite from investors to pledge their cash to the Light Blues at present.

He told RangersTV: “I just don’t think we have got a case to offer. If someone was to say ‘what is happening with the litigation?’, ‘what is happening with Sports Direct?’, ‘what is happening with this?’, you can’t really give an answer to that that would allow an investor to take a positive view on the club.

“Hence, you are going to get a very deep discount. Someone might come and invest but say ‘I will do it at 10p a share’. We don’t want that.

“We have safe pairs of hands. To repeat, we were able to raise £5million at very short notice.

“I would prefer to work with the existing group I have got, who remain committed to the club.

“When we have got a more investable case, when there is greater certainty on the cash flow and the future of the club, I think that is the right time to go to external investors and say ‘this is the case we have got here, this is the level, this is the value of investment, now come and participate with us’.

“But I think we are at least probably a year away from even being in a position of being able to go to the market. It is something I would like to do and I think it is something that is important for the club.

“It shouldn’t, long-term, be based on a few key individuals. We have seen that that hasn’t worked for the club before.”