James Tavernier announced that he is to officially leave Rangers at the end of this season. The Rangers captain has spent 11 years at the club, notching 144 goal and 148 assists in 562 games during this time.
In a statement, the Englishmen said, “it hasn’t been an easy decision” and that “this club has been a huge part of my life and my family’s over the past 11 years”.
Tavernier has been arguably the most polarising player to step foot in Ibrox in recent times, with fan opinions stretching from “loser mentality” to legend of the club.
There is no denying his numbers; Tavernier has the joint most number of goals in the Scottish Premiership era with 93- level only with Leigh Griffiths, and joint with former record holder Ally McCoist with regards to Rangers European goals with 21.
Additionally in Europe, Tavernier concluded the 2021-22 Europa League campaign as the tournament’s top goal scorer, and was the main driving force in Rangers’ charge to final of the competition.
Perhaps most astonishingly, with 152 goals throughout his entire career, Tavernier is the highest-scoring defender in the history of British football. He is also in the top 5 list for highest scoring defenders in European history.
Since earning the captain’s armband in 2018, Tavernier led the Gers to an unbeaten league winning season in 2021 under manager Steven Gerrard, which ultimately stopped rivals Celtic from winning an unprecedented ten consecutive league titles. He also won the Scottish Cup a year later, which was only a few days after the club fell short of winning the Europa League on penalties, and then scoring the decisive goal at Hampden Park to win his first League Cup in 2023.
Despite these attributes, for many observers, Tavernier’s legacy will not be that of a Rangers great. In 11 years at the club, Tavernier has won 3 major honours. Simply put, for a club like Rangers, fans do not see this as sufficient. Especially during a period of unprecedented success for their rivals across the city; this means that, as captain, Tavernier has often taken the brunt of the criticism. During his tenure at the club, the Ibrox side grew accustomed to 2nd place finishes in the league, and regular losses in the latter stages of cup competitions. Tavernier’s character and mentality was placed under a microscope, especially when Celtic legend Chris Sutton referred to him as a “serial loser” back in 2019, but the label remains seven years later.
Heavy criticism has also been thrown the Rangers’ captain’s way when discussing his defensive abilities, with many observers describing him as a liability in the defence. Though the modern-day fullback’s job is to contribute substantially to their team’s attacking play, which is something Tavernier has been very effective at, the Englishman has been targeted by opposition managers as a source of exploitation to “get at” the Rangers defence. This has most notably come when Tavernier is faced with Celtic forward Daizen Maeda, whose work-rate and blistering pace usually leaves the right back in vulnerable positions, and has often been the basis for several Celtic derby goals. Following this with post-match interviews regularly expressing his feeling of being “extremely disappointed”, fans frustration with Tavernier has remained for many years.
Regardless, Tavernier reminded supporters that his time is not up quite yet, and that all is still to play for in the race for the league title: “I will continue to give absolutely everything, as I always have until the very last day”, he said.
With the split fixtures released, the Scottish Premiership season enters its final stage. The Rangers skipper will be aiming to deliver his side their first league title in five years, as the exciting three-way race with Celtic and Hearts intensifies. The 34-year-old has the opportunity to deliver the league title as a final gift in the love-hate relationship he finds with his supporters. These last five games may determine if James Tavernier’s Rangers legacy is that of an underachieving player who was merely a good servant to the club, or if “Tav” gets to ride off into the sunset firmly as club legend and deserving of the Hall of Fame status bestowed to him by the club three years ago.
