With all the buzz surrounding Rangers captain James Tavernier and his Ibrox future, Ibrox Noise wanted to poll opinion on where fans stand regarding him.
We’ve always noted how tribalistic supporters get over the number 2 and wearer of the armband, with such strong opinions and borderline anger from one supporter or another about him, so we elected to run a survey.
And in that poll, of around 2000+ Rangers supporters who have so far responded (and counting) 80% believe Tavernier’s time at the club is up, while just 20% would prefer if he stayed.
It’s a pretty unequivocal result, which we are sure will be dismissed by those among the 20% as ‘unrepresentative’ (they would also (and have) dismissed much bigger numbers as well because it wasn’t the outcome they wanted) but we can’t really argue with raw numbers.
There was one caveat, of some fans who wanted him to stay ‘only if’ he was to be switched to RW due to his goals and assists, which seems reasonable.
But there’s a number of issues with this:
One, as we’ve said many times before, Tavernier just isn’t a RW; he doesn’t have the dribbling and beating of men in his repertoire – he’s tried it in the distant past and looked completely lost with Nathan Patterson sitting back as RB. He is also 32 and far too slow to break the pace with defenders – look how Maeda absolutely destroys him in Old Firms. Think Ross McCausland, how he’s safe, and doesn’t beat men much at all. That’s basically Tavernier as a RW, but much younger.
Secondly, his goals mostly come from the penalty spot, which has been a topic of contention for years. Anyone competent can take them and they can cycle around the team for responsibility.
And lastly, if he plays RW, is that at the expense of Oscar Cortes, potentially Adama Traore or any other RW that comes in? How would an expensive signing feel sat on the bench because Tav just gotta play?
Him as a RW is a misnomer, a myth that is proven as not working, but his ardent backers want to keep peddling it.
That said, 80% of the replies still felt Tav’s time at the club is probably up.
And you won’t be shocked to hear Ibrox Noise feel the same.