If Tavernier leaves, how will Rangers and history view him? | OneFootball

Speculation that James Tavernier will not be Rangers’ captain or RB when club football resumes later this month is pretty rife, with Qatari and Turkish clubs heavily linked with his signature.

But if he does leave, and we suppose, even if he doesn’t, what is Tavernier’s Rangers legacy?

There’s no denying the former Wigan man is one of Rangers’ most divisive players ever, a RB who can’t defend and instead plays like a winger, but without the ability to actually dribble or beat defenders, and instead takes penalties, crosses, and often pops up with an unexpected goal.

He was signed in a time where Rangers’ player expectations weren’t so high – he and Martyn Waghorn were secured in a double Wigan swoop, them being technically a League One side as they got relegated that campaign and he was off to Bristol, another League One side.

Bear in mind that was a weird Wigan – it had Harry Maguire and Rob Kiernan in it too…

But the move to Rangers was a gift for Tav in 2015 – a litany of bottom-feeding clubs in England’s lower leagues and suddenly the biggest club in Scotland wanted him, in light of our fate in 2012.

And in the Scottish Championship Tav didn’t need to worry about defending so much, because his attacking urges were more productive at that level.

But the weird syndrome with Tav will always be that he’s a winger who can’t dribble, a RB who can’t defend, a midfielder who is always out of position, and in every sense, he’s a bizarre player whose best position doesn’t really exist.

His saving grace is penalties, unexpected goals (playing as an auxiliary striker) and assists.

This is not the statistic of a RB at all, and Tavernier struck gold with Rangers, with Mark Warburton’s overhaul in 2015. He got away with his attacking urges in the Championship, but in the Premiership they’ve exposed his poor defending, and there’s little doubt that Rangers have lost dozens to hundreds of goals because of it over the years.

And yet he has rarely been dropped – once for Lee Hodson, and then partially with injury for Nathan Patterson. All brief. But Rangers haven’t signed a worthy RB since, deigning that Tavernier was untouchable, robust, and his position wasn’t for negotiation.

Which has left a surrealism of a player once viewed as a hero staying well past his bedtime and becoming a bit of a villain.

He’s definitely cut a disinterested figure this season, Rangers well aware that he’s had designs on leaving, but they’ve not worked out yet.

What will his legacy be when he does leave?

It’s hard to even say.

We don’t want to call him the worst Rangers captain ever, but if he isn’t, who is?

And his abilities at RB were limited at best, if we compare how Alan Hutton did in the Champions League (he bossed it) and how, farther back, Gary Stevens did – nailed it entirely.

These were players either of a world class stable or had been developed by the club, ala Patterson.

Tavernier was taken from League One where he wasn’t even a starter and has become Rangers’ lynchpin.

This isn’t even like O’Riley being signed from League One MK Dons or whoever it was, his ability got him the call to Denmark and then the £30M move – it just took someone finding him.

Tavernier was just randomly plucked from lower leagues and has managed to retain his place for almost a decade, despite who else was in the squad or who the manager was.

Some might say his goals and assists justify him, but of course the cost of them has been the leaving of that backdoor.

Hall of Fame? It’s hard to justify that one.

End of the day, Tav’s Rangers race will be run at some point, and he will remain the most divisive player Rangers have had probably since Maurice Johnston.