‘Let’s see’: Rangers reveal plan for ‘legend’ James Tavernier after milestone strike as injury update provided
Rangers head coach Danny Rohl discussed skipper’s impending contract expiry
Rangers head coach Danny Rohl has shared his thoughts on the future of hat-trick hero James Tavernier after admitting he almost didn’t start the 8-0 thrashing of Queen’s Park on Sunday.
The 36-year-old boss watched his side sail into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup with a comprehensive victory over the struggling second-tier side at Ibrox, with captain Tavernier bagging three goals, alongside a Ryan Naderi brace, an own goal from Matthew Shiels and two late goals from Bojan Miovski and Tochi Chukwuani.
However, Rohl admitted the veteran defender was not due to be in his starting XI for the game in Glasgow, explaining a fresh defensive injury caused him to call on the skipper late in the day.
Danny Rohl has revealed the club’s plans for James Tavernier and his current Ibrox contract. | SNS Group
“Normally Max [Aarons] should start and Tav should get a rest,” said the German head coach. “But then on the short-term in the morning I got the message from the doctor that Max is not available and then it’s Tav on. He showed his quality, we know Tav is always helpful for the group.
“But we should not speak about individuals, at the moment the team is doing well, and what I like to see is that more and more players come in at a good level. And this is important for the second half of the season. Now we need all the players on the highest level, and we work really hard to come there.”
The 34-year-old Rangers skipper, who reached a milestone 150 career goals in the mauling of the Spiders, is out of contract in the summer. Rohl revealed the club have a plan in place for the long-serving defender.
“I think this is a legend,” said Rohl. “He is always available, he is very professional, he scored a lot of goals for a right-back, for me it doesn’t matter if it’s a penalty or a set play, a goal is a goal. I think we need him as a leader. This is now, in the next following weeks, there’s a big competition, a big challenge also in this position.
“But it’s always good for everyone to be in shape, and Tav is in shape, I always can trust him, and he helps the team again. If you ask him he will say he can play all the 90 minutes, again and again. Yesterday we trained starters versus bench players, and you see not a big difference, and it was a couple of weeks ago there was a big difference. This is the challenge now, what my players have, I said to my players the good thing is everyone is a starter, the bad thing is I have just 11 positions to start.
“Let’s see [on Tavernier’s contract]. I think we are very clear with Tav in this direction, he knows our schedule and then we will come to a point where we make a decision. But let’s carry on, and I think this is also helpful for him, he should enjoy at this age to be the captain of this group.”
Rohl also confirmed that both Manuel Fernandez and Youssef Chermiti are scheduled to return for the game against Motherwell at Fir Park on Wednesday. “Normally they should be back tomorrow in the training,” said the manager. “I think this is good, hopefully they are available then for Wednesday. I think they will be available for Wednesday, and this gives me a good opportunity as well.”