James Tavernier and his Rangers exit – the latest update

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Ibrox Noise

·19 de julio de 2024

James Tavernier and his Rangers exit – the latest update

It appears inevitable now that James Tavernier is leaving Rangers this summer.

It all began with heavy speculation that Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq had submitted a bid for him and Rangers team mate Connor Goldson in the region of £8M, and the club had left it up to Tavernier to decide.

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It seems he wasn’t interested in a move to the Middle East after all, and his potential exit has been simmering all summer, with what amounts to official confirmation (Fabrizio Romano) that Turkish giants Trabzonspor have bid €4M for his signature, and Rangers want the full £4M for him.

But Tavernier has been widely-reported as accepting that bid – it seems the lure of Turkey at even higher wages as well as rejoining John Lundstram and Borna Barisic with a side building towards a very serious assault on the Super Lig title and Champions League participation the season after next is very tempting to Rangers’ captain, and he’s agreed terms.

And negotiations continue on the fee – it’s being claimed by multiple sources that €1M or so remains the issue with Rangers wanting a bit more for the RB. We’d imagine the Turks will put up the final €1M and that will be that.

It’s not official yet, so we can’t really offer too much in the way of ‘retrospect’ just yet, we like you are awaiting further developments on this story – which is by a considerable distance the closest the former Newcastle defender has ever been to leaving Ibrox permanently.

One massive clue that his heart isn’t in it any more is his complete non-involvement in preseason – he did show up to Auchenhowie and took part in a few drills, but he was completely on the side in Holland and wasn’t engaged in any of the pitch work.

He was seen on the bikes, and did offer one small ditty to RTV’s light relief (he said Rabbi Matondo was the funniest squad member) but aside that he was on the outside.

Clement claimed Tav was injured, a ‘small injury’ but we believe this manager as much as we believed Michael Beale in the end, to tell the truth. Not injured for seasons, then suddenly in preseason, linked with an exit, he’s now unavailable with an injury:

“James has a small injury. It’s nothing big. But it’s too much for him to train with the squad at the moment. We expect him back at the beginning of next week, the end of next week. It all depends on how it evolves. Everyday it’s better but he is very disappointed that he could not train with the team. He’s been a little bit down because he loves to play football. He loves to work with the ball, more than he does doing all these exercises or running laps round the pitch alone that he’s been doing. It’s not a nice time so he wants to be back as soon as possible. It’s three weeks still to go so let’s first bring him back into training fit and to build him again.”

Sure, ok, makes sense. He’s the fittest and most available guy in the squad and now, t his summer, with all the speculation, he’s injured…?

The Tavernier story is very much ‘evolving’, to paraphrase Clement, and we’ll see how long before an announcement that he’s left surfaces.