There’s no question James Tavernier’s Rangers race is run, but the problem we now seem to have is that Trabzonspor and Rangers’ valuations being £1M apart wasn’t addressed – the Turks didn’t increase their bid for Rangers’ captain and the deal seems to have gone silent.

While there was word that Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Besiktas were interested in Tavernier, no bid arrived from Istanbul so that one died down.

Which means Rangers are currently stuck with Tavernier, and Philippe Clement is far too weak to relieve him of the captaincy and permanently bench him.

There is of course the bigger issue that we simply don’t have a right back – as we’ve said ad-nauseum, Dujon Sterling is abysmal there, and has been for Rangers in preseason. He stank as a RB for Wigan, Stoke, Coventry and Blackpool, which is why his career went nowhere when he was at Chelsea out at these clubs on loan.

He started being a great player when he finally returned to his youth position of defensive midfield, and shone wonderfully for Rangers there. And subsequently has never played there since.

But forget him as a RB, unless we want to choose between two Wigan fails at RB for that position…

No, we just don’t have anyone else (aside Balogun and Devine), and as long as James Tavernier is at Rangers and fit, he will start.

Everyone has seen how ghastly Tav’s displays preseason have been – even Heart and Hand have called him out as disinterested and poor.

He’s been dire, and shown even less interest in defending than the minimal he usually does.

He does have a major backing in the fanbase – ‘who’s going to replace his goals’.

That’s a sad problem that many Rangers fans are thinking like that, that a RB SHOULD be scoring these goals. It’s not his job, and a properly-organised team would not have its goals come from defence.

Rangers need to sign a new RB, badly, but they can’t do that unless Tavernier leaves – and that’s starting to look a worrying amount less likely at the moment.

If Tavernier is still at RB come Hearts, the Champions League, or the end of the window, the season is as good as gone already.

Rangers have won 3 matches of the last 10, including the friendlies. It’s horrendous form.