James Tavernier to get Giovanni van Bronckhorst Rangers sack ‘soon’
James Tavernier can’t defend and is going to get Giovanni van Bronckhorst sacked at Rangers “relatively soon” according to Joey Barton.
The one-time Rangers midfielder has heavily criticised the Ibrox captain, with the manager’s job hanging in the balance amid a miserable European campaign and shaky domestic form.
He is set to face off with former Celtic captain Scott Brown who now manages Fleetwood on Saturday (12 November) and to mark the occasion has blasted his former teammate, the only defender who has been at the club since 2016, for not being able to defend during their only Glasgow derby together against the ex-Hoops man, and for still making the same mistakes now.
The Bristol Rovers boss told the Scottish Sun: “I’m still watching the same players I was criticising when I was in the building make the same mistakes, which is probably going to get the manager now, Gio van Bronckhorst the heave-ho relatively soon.
“Certain people, who are meant to be defenders, can’t defend, and nobody’s done any work on them since.”
He later directly criticised the captain. Referring to the 5-1 Old Firm derby defeat in 2016 where he ended up in defence after Philippe Senderos was send off, he said: “I end up playing middle centre-back with James Tavernier right side and Lee Wallace left side, and I was comfortably the best defender between the three of us.”
Forceful
There are questions about the defensive side of the Rangers skippers’ game, as there seems to be about most high-profile full-backs these days, and they are likely not helping with a shaky Light Blues defence of late.
But over the course of his time in Glasgow, the English right-back has undoubtedly been a far heavier positive force than a negative.
Captaining the side back to the top of Scottish football, while registering an absurd 90 goals and 112 assists from full-back, he has safely done his part for Rangers.
Barton is never afraid of upsetting people by speaking his mind, but his eight Bears appearances clearly don’t match up against the impact of Tavernier’s 372.
He must be doing something right to have lasted that long in the Gers team, whatever his shortcomings, and with van Bronckhorst starting him in virtually every match since he’s been at the club he clearly feels the same.
Leading the scoring charts in last season’s Europa League was a primary reason why this side reached the final, in what is arguably the Dutchman’s standout achievement, so if he does get sacked it seems unlikely that he will be looking sideways at the captain on his way out the door.
In other Rangers news, Chris Sutton had a sarcastic response for Michael Beale after his claim about Celtic’s league title.