'Celtic will fold like a pack of cards'

Celtic have just won their 7th consecutive league title, but Rangers are looking to give Gerrard the funds to break this mould. 

"We appoint a manager who can win games, with more resources, and we take one league away from Celtic," King said. 

"We only need one league. We don't need two or three. We need one. Once we take one away, it's a pack of cards.

"Celtic's costs structure is more like we were 10 years ago. We needed Champions League football and if we went into the Europa League we were in trouble because the cost structure was so high.

"Take that away for one season and it will change the numbers in the Celtic side very, very quickly.

"They have the comfort levels we once had of knowing we were going to get Champions League money. We have to take that away from them and hopefully we have started that process on Friday.

"The question is, that with Celtic's resources, does it put you beyond them forever? The answer is clearly no.

"We have seen the cycle. I was with Rangers when we thought Celtic would never catch up - never in a hundred years. Dick Advocaat said they would never, ever catch up. I think it lasted 17 minutes of the next game we played against them (Celtic's 6-2 win in August 2000).

"They caught up with us 17 minutes into the next game and then went past us because Martin O'Neill came in and figured out a different way to do it.

"You need the right management structure to do it. We have now gone very, very strong in the management squad."