Outrage over club announcement – fans aren’t happy

As Rangers fans will know the club announced the POTY nominations a day or two ago, and while four of the candidates were, to varying levels, legitimate contenders, the reaction from ourselves and our fellow fans to the fifth inclusion really did scream of a club out of touch with a portion of its support.

Don’t get us wrong, James Tavernier hasn’t been absolute garbage this season – indeed, he even had a decent spell earlier this year where his defending and attacking were both looking quite solid for once.

But therein lies the problem – ‘for once’. How could Tavernier be included with a straight face in this competition?

We look at the case for? He has goals and assist, and a lot of both. There is no argument on our part over the assists – 11 assists in the league tells its own story – he tops the SPL in that regard. He definitely plays a huge part in getting goals for his team mates. And of course, 11 goals too, which is, for a right back, a stunning return. But the caveat? Most of them are penalties.

But nevertheless, there’s certainly a case for his stats at the least.

But the negative reaction to his being among the nominations rather shows that his numbers don’t seem to mean enough to supporters – that his general game and quality and overall form have not been justifying enough to put him among these names.

It’s a paradox – 22 domestic assists and goals all season really should force the conclusion of his legitimacy for this, but the reality is his form overall just hasn’t lived up to what those numbers should suggest we see.

And plus his inclusion is clearly at someone else’s expense. More on that later…