Last night, we witnessed one of the most foreseeable developments in Ibrox’s ongoing crisis: the door to Turkey has firmly shut on James Tavernier and the club. Recently, I mistakenly mentioned that the transfer window there closed tonight; in reality, it remains open until Wednesday. Yet for Tavernier and his club, it might as well have closed last week. He’s not going there.
To be frank, he was never going there. It was always a total fantasy, just like the idea of him heading to the UAE was some random invention.
It wasn’t a fantasy because the club wasn’t eager to facilitate it; they were very eager. They just couldn’t drum up any interest in him, despite their best efforts, and neither could he secure the move he wanted.
The reason it’s not happening is that the Turkey story hinged on a league rule change, allowing its clubs to have 14 foreign players instead of 12. I doubt any of their clubs would have signed Tavernier anyway, but once the league opted against this change, the door slammed shut because the two supposedly “interested” clubs already have their 12 foreign players.
So that’s that.
The Ibrox club won’t be shifting their captain to Turkey. He’ll be around until at least January, and given that his contract expires at the end of the next campaign, I’d wager he’ll stay until then and leave on a free.
He probably wants out by now—most reports suggest as much—but he won’t take a pay cut, nor should he. Besides his Ibrox contract, he’s also entitled to a testimonial, though it’s debatable how many fans would turn up for that.
There’s no rosy final year of his deal waiting for him at Ibrox, and he knows it. The club wants him gone, and he would leave if someone were willing to take him on, paying both him and Ibrox—but that doesn’t look likely.
So, like two people trapped in a bad marriage, they’re stuck with each other. I can’t say I feel much sympathy for either party. Though if I had to choose, it would be Tavernier; I think he’s been treated quite poorly.
Still, it’s hard to imagine this happening at a well-run club. Competent clubs don’t try to replace their captain and fail, then try to offload him and fail, only to keep him on while everyone knows they tried and couldn’t get rid of him.
Tavernier reflects the malaise affecting the whole club—the unprofessionalism, the cold way the man in the dugout conducts business. He’ll certainly face questions about this today, and it’ll be interesting to hear his response. But whatever he tells the media, inside the club, they all know the truth—especially the captain. It’s like trying to put the pin back in a grenade that’s already gone off—an exercise in futility.
Both parties are now on a hiding to nothing. Tavernier will surely take the field at Tannadice, and the first mistake he makes, both he and the manager will face the backlash. The manager will be blamed for playing an off-form, low-confidence player he undermined, and Tavernier will get stick simply because that’s what their fans do now.
It’s a remarkable way for his Ibrox career to unravel, but it fits neatly into the overall disintegration of their club this season.
It’s a delightfully bad story for them, with no end in sight.
I agree, hard to have any sympathy for either party, though the treatment of Taverner from the club and support, in particular, is abhorrent. We have seen players be scapegoats at our club, with some of them unfairly castigated for various reasons. This happens at all clubs. There will always be players who are not popular and will be picked on.
It’s never been to the extent where a wide swathe of the support, and the club, are actively campaigning for not just a player, but the team captain, to be punted.
It’s there whole philosophy on microcosm. An inability to see the big picture and have some delusional fantasy that Tav is to blame for all their problems. Not the board and their Marx Brothers incompetence in running the club. Not the manager whose Goofball tactics, falling out with players and mind boggling signings have seen them drop points in crucial games and not the fans who are continually spout their superiority and unionist triumphalism as a stick to suggest they deserve to be not just the biggest team in the country, but to be acknowledged as such. What a car crash.
It is fund to watch the s***show on the other side of the city, but I’m looking in other directions now for challenges.
Love to read something on Aberdeen’s improvements under their new coach, and whether we think this is sustainable, or maybe the fact that Dundee Utd have announced their return to the Premiership with a bang!
Must be killing your average Hun that we (well I do anyway!) now see them as the challengers! lol
The Dandy Dons most certainly will be OUR biggest challengers this season
HH
The Scottish Premier League was brilliant and very competitive during my first ten years as a footy fan Yorkshire Bhoy (1980-1989) where Aberdeen, Dundee United, Celtic and Rangers (as of course they actually were back then) all won the league and Hearts came within a six minute whisker of winning it in 1986 (Thank the actual fuck that they never all the same) !
It was ultra competitive as were the cup competitions…
Then along came that highwayman and ultimately serial taxpayers thief called David Murray…
In a perverse way when ‘Rangers’ died in 2012 – Thank Fuck he did, but I sure as night follows day wasn’t thinking that way during The Nightmare Nineties !
My first serious years supporting the Hoops (’78 onwards) were not total domination, but it wasn’t Rangers winning the rest of the time, so that took the edge off! lol
The 90’s were grim, but somewhere deep down (really, really deep down if I’m being honest!), I knew that things had to be put right off the field, and that Fergus McCann was doing what was necessary, and that that cheating fecker Murray was pushing Old Co the other way…
…and so it transpired!
I was in my 20’s so most of the 90’s have been erased with the drink and other stuff so I can live with it! lol
I’ve ensured my oldest lad is a Bhoy and, bar the COVID abomination, he just thinks Celtic win everththing, every year!
The youngest lad is lost to the English Premier League… he’s dead to me!
A similar story to me Yorkshire Bhoy, sounds like I might give you 5 years though! We knew Murray was a bad one but couldn’t prove it. Down south with 3 kids that see the EPL as Disneyland and Scottish football as real and CFC as a club like no other. HH
They turned down the bids that came in for him according to their friends in the media!! Will the press ask him about it and will anyone question him about Cerny’s comments, not one of their sites have mentioned it, I wonder why.
I actually feel sorry for Tavernier . Its not as if he is a dyed in the wool hun like Boyd etc. I honestly think they would miss him. He ain’t a great defender but he can put a great ball in the box , he’s deadly at freekicks and we all know about his penalties. He probably assists a lot of goals which the rangers would sorely miss. We at Celtic can be guilty of giving certain players of ours a hard time at times but nothing on the scale that this guy has to deal with and I hope we never do
I have never disliked Tavernier, he is not as bad a player that people say on here, he is dangerous from set pieces, and can cross a ball very well, his defending is not the greatest that’s been the problem really. The flak he takes off some of our fans and theirs is a tad below the belt I feel. The thing with our supporters and there’s, they make it personal with the players, and that should never be the case, I suppose that’s why they call it the goldfish bowl.
“It’s a delightfully bad story for them with no end in sight”
It’s a delightful story for us with hopefully no end in sight !!!!!
Gerverton penalty on Sunday tav score’s all forgiven
Have been in Turkey jimthese past two weeks and take a wee daily gander at the sports pages – not that I fully understand them.
Two words I have never seen in any of them
JAMES…….TAVERNIER
More fantasty wishes from the SMSM.