Dave King has outlined his two major aims should he return as chairman of Rangers.

The South African-based businessman has made himself available to the club over the next two years following the resignation of John Bennett.

Still, the club's largest shareholder, the 69-year-old wants to return to his former role at Ibrox to help them gain some much-needed investment and to get the club's operational policies back on a safe footing.

King admits he hopes things are 'not as bad' as when he went in all those years ago in 2015 to help rescue the club alongside John Gilligan - who is filling the position on an interim basis.

"What I've done is I've made myself available," he told Jim White, Simon Jordan and Martin Keown on talkSPORT this lunchtime. "As much as it was unsurprising for me that John stepped down - I've been in fairly regular contact with him - I do really understand the stress and the impact that being the chairman of Rangers has had on him.

"I just hope he's well and now that he has stood down, he can recover himself and get back to normal. 

"I know how tough it is to be chairman of Rangers at any time, and in particular during this difficult situation.

"Having seen John stepping down, under normal circumstances, I would've expected someone from the board to have stepped up. 

"When I heard what the board have decided to do, go outside to headhunt a chairman, a CEO, the job at Rangers is very different to chairing a public company.

"Right now, the club is in crisis. The extent of it, I don't know. Only those inside do know, but certainly the operational issues within Rangers are a challenge. 

"I think something has to happen fairly quickly. The club lacks leadership in all aspects of the club. Clearly, we don't all know what is going wrong but it is. It's recruitment, it's on-field issues, it's off-field issues, and there are poor management issues. 

“It won’t be comfortable for some who are in place right now. Some of the incumbents wouldn’t like it. They know how I work.

"I’m quite direct and expect results quickly and people to put their shoulder to the wheel.

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"I can imagine some within the club might be more comfortable but I am the largest shareholder so have an economic interest to get things right and secondly at least I have a track record.

“It needs someone to come in quickly. It needs someone with institutional experience and not someone who will spend months.

"There’s two major objectives - one to reintroduce the operational policies that have gone missing and to find new investment. It needs a proper plan to bridge the gap.

"I have no idea what I will find but hopefully it’s not as bad as when I went in years ago.”

King also admitted that he is fearful of arch-city rivals Celtic overtaking Rangers as the world's most successful club.

The Ibrox club has boasted of that status for a long time. However, with Celtic winning their 118th major trophy last season, putting them level with Rangers, they can overtake this season as they go for their 55th league title.

“I have the utmost respect for Graeme [Souness] and he knows a lot more about football than me but there is a very significant gap on and off the pitch between us and Celtic," he said in response to the notion that there is not a gulf between the teams.

"My fear, longer-term as a fan, isn’t about stopping 10-in-a-row which was my previous target. One thing we do hang onto is we are still the most successful club in the world and if we slip too long we might lose that as well.

“There is a level of urgency. This season is slipping. I’m talking as a supporter. It will be very challenging with European games coming up and they could be in a very difficult place by October.

"There’s no leadership. There are two main categories. In the time we went through the rebuild of the club when it had been hollowed out by the Easdales and the Mike Ashley situation.

"We had to rebuild all the policies, procedures, recruitment, scouting. Everything in the club was broken and we got it to a point where were able to make decisions and take some management risks.

“At least there was a solidarity and progress was being made and that got us to 55 which was the target.

"My biggest disappointment is to see the areas where we have gone backwards where policies that were in place are no longer complied with by the present board such as recruitment of players and how we write commercial contracts with players."