Tavpen sends out title warning to Celtic and praises performance in 3-0 Napoli defeat

James Tavernier has finally found his voice after a month of near silence.

The former Wigan Athletic utility man wore the armband of dignity through humiliating defeats to Celtic, Ajax and Napoli without saying a word in public.

Ten days after beating Dundee United 2-1 Tavpen is applying top spin to that run of results before the season resumes at Tynecastle on Saturday. Two matches against Liverpool either side of a visit from St Mirren should test the fragile confidence of the Ibrox squad.

Now into his eight season Tav has won two trophies while watching Celtic pick up 15 domestic honours but hope and delusion are never far away from the man who admitted in 2020 that his side just couldn’t cope with expectations.

Picking up on the interview the Daily Record reports Tavpen saying:

Obviously the first block of games, we were disappointed with the Hibs game and losing the men and taking a point there. The performance at Parkhead, we didn’t like that performance at all that we put in.

But we are only two points in it in the league so there are a lot of games to play, it is still early in the season. The boys are raring to go to get it kicked off again.

The Champions League, we wanted more out of the Ajax game, we wanted to implement our style of play, which we didn’t do. I thought we did that against Napoli and for 60 minutes we played really well.

Then you go to ten men and it can be a struggle. We conceded three penalties, Greegsy has done wonders to save two out, but that is football at the end of the day. We are relishing the task in hand and the games in hand. We are not far away.

Tav hasn’t been away on international duty over the last week.