James Tavernier will be missed when he leaves Rangers, Sky Sports pundit unhappy with teammates
Kris Boyd isn’t happy with the Rangers forwards for leaving James Tavernier on penalty-taking duties at the club.
The Sky Sports pundit wrote in his Scottish Sun column (26 April), where he picked the “phenomenal” Ibrox captain in his team of the year alongside Jack Butland, it’s not the 32-year-old’s “fault” that a decent proportion of his excellent scoring record comes from the spot if others haven’t stepped up.
Tavernier has again been linked to a move to join Steven Gerrard in Saudi Arabia, and Boyd is clear that whenever he does leave “he’ll be missed” in Glasgow.
He said: “I’m also picking [Butland’s] skipper and team-mate James Tavernier at right-back. Sure, this guy has his critics — but his numbers are phenomenal and he’ll be missed whenever he leaves Ibrox.
“A lot has been made of the ‘penalty Rangers’ shout, and I don’t like how the forwards at the club are happy for the team’s right-back to take the spot-kicks.
“But that’s not Tav’s fault and he’s had another season he can be really proud of.”
Kris Boyd delighted by Rangers captain again
There arguably isn’t anyone in the forward areas at Ibrox with the seniority to hope to challenge Tavernier’s place as penalty taker.
Only Cyriel Dessers comes close in terms of age, with the 29-year-old the senior attacker in the current squad, but he like so many others haven’t been at Rangers for long.
The Nigerian international’s willingness to stick to his task through misses and criticism has been admirable this term but even he might be pushing it to suggest he should be on penalties over the record-breaking captain.
Nearly all of the other possibilities are either on loan, injured, much younger, only just through the doors, or a combination of all four, and while the situation isn’t broken with Tavernier taking them it doesn’t need fixing.
Whether the Saudi links materialise into a multi-million move or not Rangers are going to need to have contingency plans in place sooner or later to replace his goalscoring output.
In other Rangers news, a rift between Philippe Clement and the board is a “concern” now that one of his favourites is set to leave.
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