A signing hadn’t been made and a goal hadn’t been scored, but Rangers fans had a reason to celebrate last night. Two years after Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan took control at Ibrox, the stand-off with Sports Direct has come to an end. Here, King addresses the ramifications of the renegotiated retail deal and what it means for supporters and the club just days before the new campaign kicks-off.

WOULD YOU SAY THAT THE SPORTS DIRECT DEAL HAD PLACED A STRANGLEHOLD OVER YOU THAT WOULD HAVE PREVENTED YOU EFFECTIVELY COMPETING WITH CELTIC?

Dave King: Yes. Without bringing in another source of revenue, the only way you could compensate for it was to get people to lend money.

You had a structural deficit within the ongoing operations. So one of the priorities for us over the last couple of years - the biggest priority if you are ignoring the football side of getting back to the Premiership and into Europe - was the resolution of the retail deal.

Read more: Dave King: Rangers' refusal to cave in to Sports Direct was the key to striking new Ibrox retail deal

It has been by far the most significant and challenging. Myself and James Blair have been working on this for two years.

It has been very time intensive. I’ve spent more time on Rangers litigation over the last two years than I have on my own businesses in South Africa and globally. Much more.

We have gone week after week after week, every single day - Saturdays and Sundays - working on this.

It has been a really monumental effort, taking a massive amount of time and resources to get to this point. But it was so critical to the club that we got something sorted out.

IS THIS AS TRANSFORMATIONAL A DEAL AS YOU HAVE KNOWN SINCE YOU HAVE COME INTO RANGERS?

DK: I think so. If I look at the transaction we have in place at the moment, it is kind of what I would have expected the previous board to have got in place for Rangers.

It is something which recognises Rangers Football Club for what it is - the supporters and the number who will buy the kit and other products.

For reasons that are not completely clear, the previous board alienated most of these rights in favour of Sports Direct without getting anything in return from Rangers’ point of view.

So what we’ve now got is an agreement in place which should have happened three years ago. It properly reflects the status, economic needs and requirements Rangers bring to a retail deal. It also recognises that Rangers don’t have retail operations.

So it’s not a question of us entering a transaction with anyone that doesn’t involve retail, because we gave up our retail operations 10 years ago. We still needed a partner.

Read more: Dave King: Rangers' refusal to cave in to Sports Direct was the key to striking new Ibrox retail deal

What we have here is a good short-term arrangement until the end of next season. We will have to see where it goes and whether it continues beyond then. At least we are now in control of what happens thereafter, where previously we were being controlled.

IF RANGERS FANS GO BACK TO BUYING MERCHANDISE AT TRADITIONAL LEVELS, HOW MUCH WILL THIS BE WORTH?

DK: I can't say because then I would be giving away specific figures but what I can say is that the historical profits of Rangers’ retail were very, very substantial. Very, very substantial. If we can get back to a normalised basis it is a significant increase of funds into the club, none of which has been budgeted for.

All of the business we have been doing, and the business we have done in the transfer market up till now has been budgeted for without the knowledge that this deal would be done so this is a bonus to the club relative of where we are at this point in time.

IS THIS AGREEMENT ON A PAR WITH TAKING CONTROL OF THE CLUB?

DK: This agreement today is by far the most significant event since regime change, by far from the club's point of view going forward.

Absolutely. I have seen comments, arguments put forward, even perhaps from within the club, that a deal should have been done with Sports Direct sooner. That it was a personality clash with Mike Ashley or whatever.

The truth, as James will testify, is that a deal could have been done sooner. It could have been done two years ago on their terms.

It would have been as bad as it was, capitulation, or we could have done one a year ago and got it sooner, but it wouldn't have been on these terms.

It was only because we were pretty much non-negotiable, that we would not enter into any agreement, we would fight for five, six, seven years and continue to fight unless we got a deal that was right for the club. This deal is right for the club.

YOU SAID PREVIOUSLY THAT MIKE ASHLEY WAS SOMEONE YOU COULD DO BUSINESS WITH. DO YOU THINK THE BUSINESS SENSE HAS SWUNG IT FROM HIS SIDE AS WELL?

DK: I think he is someone who we have done business with. I think I have said in previous interviews as well, that I get Mike Ashley's position.

Mike Ashley is saying 'I came across a weak board in a week position and I took advantage'. Let the buyer beware.

Read more: Dave King: Rangers' refusal to cave in to Sports Direct was the key to striking new Ibrox retail deal

That is right but having said that we are not going to allow it to continue. And there were various reasons that we took for terminating the agreement because we couldn't accept it. We couldn't accept the commercial terms of it, but the fact you don't like the commercial terms of an agreement doesn't give you a reason to go before a court and get them overturned.

We just felt there were sufficient other causes that we eventually terminated the agreement and then we were in a situation where we were at a stand-off, only to be resolved in the courts and we knew that wasn't good for us, because we were giving Celtic that unnatural advantage because of the lack or our retail performance.

And in my calculated estimate, I am not sure Mike Ashley and Sports Direct agree, it can't have been good for them. Because they believe that they are a smart retailer, which they are clearly. And other clubs should be using them. Rangers certainly wasn't a good model for them to go to other clubs.

We were aware, because there were negative connotations for the football club of the relationship not working, could we get to a point where there was a balance of interests.

If we went into it with the feeling that Sports Direct were somehow going to dominate the negotiations, or us saying we were going to dominate, we needed almost a balance, knowing that parties could work together. Even when we decided to get together, these negotiations were extremely, extremely difficult.

WAS THIS NUMBER ONE IN THE LIST OF PRIORITIES IN TERMS OF YOUR PLAN FOR RANGERS?

DK: From my personal point of view the resolution that we have got has taken a huge amount of time. I would love to be in the position as chairman of Rangers to go to games and get the enjoyable part of it. I have not been able to. I have been flying in to London for legal meetings and I can't stay for the game.

WILL YOU BE ABLE TO GO TO GAMES NOW?

DK: From my personal point of view, the level of time that I have had to devote to this has been significant. That will change and my time can be used more creatively.

There are a lot of opportunities in the retail operation that we have foregone, a lot of discussions I have had with Alistair Johnston about the stuff Rangers should be doing but we have not been able to do because the IP was sitting with Rangers Retail Ltd and Rangers Retail Ltd was controlled by Sports Direct.

As of now, all of that IP is transferred back to The Rangers Football Club so we can now start to make our own decisions not only about the existing retail operation but about how we go forward with other ideas. It is very exciting to be in a more creative mode as opposed to damage control.

Read more: Dave King: Rangers' refusal to cave in to Sports Direct was the key to striking new Ibrox retail deal

IS THE FEELING OF PRIDE OR RELIEF WHEN YOU CONSIDER WHAT THE CLUB HAVE ACHIEVED THIS SUMMER? RANGERS FANS FEEL THEY HAVE TURNED THE CORNER, DO YOU SHARE THAT SENSE OF OPTIMISM?

DK: It is certainly not pride. I think relief is probably a good word. Even when I got on the plane last night I wasn’t sure about the deal. We had come close a couple of times and then it drifted away again.

I really was hoping we would get it across the line today. There was from my point of view a sense of relief because this is incredibly important to the club going forward. Now we have our retail future in our own hands for the first time in many years.

DOES IT OPEN UP OTHER COMMERCIAL AVENUES FOR YOU?

DK: We are in a situation now where we can go forward. We haven’t been in a lot of the markets because, quite frankly, we couldn’t have discussions. If people approached us and said ‘we have an idea’, we couldn’t talk to them because we had no authority, we had no mandate.

The IP for which they had an idea was sitting in Rangers Retail Ltd and the fact that Rangers Retail Ltd will be wound up as part of this agreement and disappear really puts that back in our hands. We have been out of the market a bit in the sense that we have not been able to talk to anyone. We have got a fully-fledged commercial department that can now go forward and start to market the brand that is Rangers.

HOW DOES IT IMPACT WITH YOUR ABILITY TO COMPETE WITH CELTIC ON THE PITCH?

DK: Again, significantly. Celtic have obviously had three advantages over Rangers over the last couple of years.

One is they have had retail operations and we haven’t, so we have had to bridge that gap and find that money from somewhere else. They have had access to European income and we have had none so that gap has already been bridged and will continue to be bridged. And they have had a player squad of a level of quality that they could bring cash in if they had to.

We have taken the retail opportunity out of the equation completely and I think that will go back in Rangers’ favour again.

What we have got to do now is bridge the other two gaps and I think it is fair to say that now we are back in Europe we will be back in Europe every year.