Rangers chairman Dave King has responded to recent criticism from Chris Sutton and reiterated that the club are much closer to their Old Firm rivals Celtic.
Former Celtic player Sutton recently had some harsh words for the Rangers chairman, and was quoted in the Daily Record calling him childish and disrespecting the integrity of Scottish football.
Sutton’s comments came after King publicly revealed that he does not believe that Celtic are miles ahead of Rangers in terms of development. He also said that Celtic should not be credited with winning six consecutive titles as Rangers were not in the league for the first four.
Speaking to the Times, King dismissed Sutton’s criticism and remained confident that Rangers have closed the gap on Celtic due to the transfer activity this summer.
“It doesn’t make sense to me. It might be what Chris Sutton feels is necessary to put out there but it makes no sense in terms of my comment,” he said.
“You can’t take away that Celtic have the titles but, as far as the Rangers support is concerned, the competition resumed when we started going head-to-head.
“Celtic and Aberdeen were better than us last season. But with the progress we have made behind the scenes, and particularly now having signed this new Sports Direct deal [on more advantageous terms to Rangers than the previous retail contract agreed under Charles Green], in terms of the institution that is Glasgow Rangers, we have substantially narrowed that gap to get back to a more natural position.”
Rangers endured a tough return back to the top tier of Scottish football last season as they finished in third place, nine points behind Aberdeen and 39 points behind champions Celtic.
The club appear determined not to replicate last season and they have already invested heavily in the squad during the summer transfer window, signing eight new players.
King is likely to be in attendance at Ibrox when Rangers face Progres Niederkorn in the Europa League first qualifying round on Thursday evening.