Scottish Championship side Rangers Chair Dave King has urged fans to "snap up 45,000 season tickets to hand their new boss an instant player budget" of £12M ($18.5M), according to David McCarthy of the Scotland DAILY RECORD. And the Ibrox chairman said that more cash will "come from the boardroom if it's needed to build a squad that will win automatic promotion next season." He also "revealed that a five-man managerial shortlist" -- including Manager Stuart McCall and some candidates who are with other clubs -- will be "whittled down to one in a week." King is "ready to throw money at a new squad but denied he had failed to learn from the club's past mistakes by following that route." King said, "That's not the case. The club hasn’t invested -- it just spent money. Last year the club had the second biggest wage bill in Scotland -- but look at the performance of the team." On the managerial front, King revealed Rangers will not "go down the Director of Football route at this stage." In fact, when asked if former Scottish FA Performance Dir Mark Wotte had been approached for that role, as had been reported, King asked, "Who is Mark Wotte? Never heard of him" (DAILY RECORD, 6/9).
