Rangers captain James Tavernier was recommended to Celtic
James Tavernier has become a fan’s favourite at Rangers since he arrived at Ibrox in 2015 but things could have been so much different.
As detailed in a feature on the BBC Sport website, the 30-year-old was recommended by his former manager Steve Evans to Old Firm rivals Celtic who opted against signing him at the time.
“I told Celtic to sign him,” Evans, a boyhood Hoops fan, said after Tavernier had played a key role in helping his Rotherham side earn promotion from League One in England.
Thankfully for the Light Blues, Mark Warburton took charge at Ibrox and made a beeline for the club captain and the rest is history.
“Playing against Tav, he was a tremendous athlete,” the now Queens Park Rangers manager said in the same feature. “He had great deliveries which have been a consistent trait throughout his career with Rangers.
“His best form of defence was attack. Everyone I asked about James said his character was strong, affable, friendly and hardworking. He trained every day, rarely missed a session.
“Everything we heard turned out to be true.”
Count our lucky stars
We can be extremely thankful that Celtic were seemingly brain-dead when they opted against signing Tavernier because you can’t imagine Rangers without him now.
More than 300 appearances later and the 30-year-old is still performing to an extremely high standard having contributed to 183 goals in that time (77 goals and 106 assists).
Seeing the Englishman in anything but Blue just seems wrong when you imagine it and him in the green and white of Celtic is something no one wants to think about.
It would be like seeing Callum McGregor walkout at Ibrox donning the blue of the Gers, it’s just wrong.
Celtic’s loss is Rangers’ gain though thankfully and this new information will be sure to stir the pot among Hoops fans who will undoubtedly be jealous of how good he has become since not heading to Parkhead.
They can cry all they like but they have to live with the fact that they missed out on one of the best players in the entire Scottish Premiership.
In other Rangers news, a BBC pundit has named this Gers ace as “the best player in the league,” and wants him to play more games than he is.