Bonnyloyal
Well-Known Member
By
David McCarthy
Cards on the table. I like Chris Sutton.
He speaks plenty of sense but sometimes, as a columnist who needs to provoke a reaction, he goes over the score.
And suggesting James Tavernier is a serial loser, is seriously over the score.
Tavernier may not have had the silver-laden career big Chris enjoyed. Then again, he wasn’t lucky enough to be Henrik Larsson and Alan Shearer’s wing man.
But I’d bet my bottom dollar, the vast majority of footballers up and down the country would sign for Tavernier’s career. Arriving at Ibrox as an unheralded right back from Wigan in a £200,000 deal four years ago,
Tavernier could easily have come and gone in the manner of some of Mark Warburton’s signings. Harry Forrester, Matt Crookes, Rob Kiernan and Josh Windass spring to mind.
And when Steven Gerrard arrived - a guy who knows a thing or two about leadership qualities - he immediately made the right back his club captain.
Following in the footsteps of the likes of John Greig, Richard Gough and Terry Butcher is a heavy responsibility and Tavernier has worn the armband with assurance and no little class.
For an English fella who had no affiliation to the club as a kid, he’s grown to understand the significance of the captaincy at a club that has such a massive support spread all across the globe.
He gets on with the job of representing it with a quiet assurance and is rarely, if ever, knocked out of his stride.
When the Hibs ‘supporter’ jumped on to the Easter Road track to have a go at him back in March, did Tavernier make a meal of it? No, he gave the thug a shove back and got on with it.
As recently as Wednesday night when an Aberdeen lout lobbed a pie at him, scoring a direct hit, all Tavernier did was turn round and glare at those in the vicinity for a split second then carry on with his business. No histrionics, no theatrics, just a guy trying to get on with his job.
And he’s good at it. For a serial loser, he’s VERY good at it.
He’s worn the Rangers armband 101 times in his career and lost only 15 times. That in itself isn’t bad but his record in recent times is exceptional. In his last 35 games as captain, Rangers have lost just twice.
Tavernier’s problem, hell the rest of Scottish football’s problem, has been Celtic’s utter dominance. If he is a serial loser, then so is every other footballer in the land who doesn’t pull on a Celtic top over the past three seasons, because nobody else has won a thing that matters.
He’s not the best defender in the world and he certainly went through a dip earlier in the season when high profile errors against Young Boys of Berne and Hearts at Tynecastle cost his team vital goals.
But the mistakes in the deficit column are far outweighed by the positives in an attacking sense where he already has nine assists this season on top of his three goals.
Last season, he scored 17 times from right back and while most were from the penalty spot, they still have to be converted and that’s not always easy as his three misses from 12 yards this term testify
He doesn’t get sent off. He’s hardly ever injured. He doesn’t fall out of nightclubs at all hours in the morning. He doesn’t appear on the front pages.
And he doesn’t deserve to be called a serial loser.
Then again, big Sutton might just have done him and his club a huge favour.
Branding Tavernier - and the rest of the Rangers team by association - serial losers has written Gerrard’s team-talk for him.
Players shouldn’t need any extra motivation in a cup final, particularly in an Old Firm cup final, but Tavernier and Co have just been given one.
And if Tavernier finds himself holding the trophy up into the Hampden sky on Sunday, he could be forgiven for turning it in the direction of the BT Sport pundits’ area.
David McCarthy
- 06:00, 7 DEC 2019
Cards on the table. I like Chris Sutton.
He speaks plenty of sense but sometimes, as a columnist who needs to provoke a reaction, he goes over the score.
And suggesting James Tavernier is a serial loser, is seriously over the score.
Tavernier may not have had the silver-laden career big Chris enjoyed. Then again, he wasn’t lucky enough to be Henrik Larsson and Alan Shearer’s wing man.
But I’d bet my bottom dollar, the vast majority of footballers up and down the country would sign for Tavernier’s career. Arriving at Ibrox as an unheralded right back from Wigan in a £200,000 deal four years ago,
Tavernier could easily have come and gone in the manner of some of Mark Warburton’s signings. Harry Forrester, Matt Crookes, Rob Kiernan and Josh Windass spring to mind.
And when Steven Gerrard arrived - a guy who knows a thing or two about leadership qualities - he immediately made the right back his club captain.
Following in the footsteps of the likes of John Greig, Richard Gough and Terry Butcher is a heavy responsibility and Tavernier has worn the armband with assurance and no little class.
For an English fella who had no affiliation to the club as a kid, he’s grown to understand the significance of the captaincy at a club that has such a massive support spread all across the globe.
He gets on with the job of representing it with a quiet assurance and is rarely, if ever, knocked out of his stride.
When the Hibs ‘supporter’ jumped on to the Easter Road track to have a go at him back in March, did Tavernier make a meal of it? No, he gave the thug a shove back and got on with it.
As recently as Wednesday night when an Aberdeen lout lobbed a pie at him, scoring a direct hit, all Tavernier did was turn round and glare at those in the vicinity for a split second then carry on with his business. No histrionics, no theatrics, just a guy trying to get on with his job.
And he’s good at it. For a serial loser, he’s VERY good at it.
He’s worn the Rangers armband 101 times in his career and lost only 15 times. That in itself isn’t bad but his record in recent times is exceptional. In his last 35 games as captain, Rangers have lost just twice.
Tavernier’s problem, hell the rest of Scottish football’s problem, has been Celtic’s utter dominance. If he is a serial loser, then so is every other footballer in the land who doesn’t pull on a Celtic top over the past three seasons, because nobody else has won a thing that matters.
He’s not the best defender in the world and he certainly went through a dip earlier in the season when high profile errors against Young Boys of Berne and Hearts at Tynecastle cost his team vital goals.
But the mistakes in the deficit column are far outweighed by the positives in an attacking sense where he already has nine assists this season on top of his three goals.
Last season, he scored 17 times from right back and while most were from the penalty spot, they still have to be converted and that’s not always easy as his three misses from 12 yards this term testify
He doesn’t get sent off. He’s hardly ever injured. He doesn’t fall out of nightclubs at all hours in the morning. He doesn’t appear on the front pages.
And he doesn’t deserve to be called a serial loser.
Then again, big Sutton might just have done him and his club a huge favour.
Branding Tavernier - and the rest of the Rangers team by association - serial losers has written Gerrard’s team-talk for him.
Players shouldn’t need any extra motivation in a cup final, particularly in an Old Firm cup final, but Tavernier and Co have just been given one.
And if Tavernier finds himself holding the trophy up into the Hampden sky on Sunday, he could be forgiven for turning it in the direction of the BT Sport pundits’ area.
