James Tavernier changes his tune over title challenge to Celtic

James Tavernier has backed down from last month’s title claims.

Now in his eighth season at Ibrox, the former Wigan utility man has watched Celtic win six titles out of seven with the gap at the top stretching from two points to four after yesterday’s fixtures.

Almost as significantly Ange Postecoglou’ side are 13 goals better off in terms of goal difference with 14 goals racked up in their last three matches, opposed to the four scored by Tav and his pals.

Every week Ibrox fans are comparing the turgid performances of Van Bronckhorst’s side with the all out attack on offer from Celtic with the quality difference between the two clubs back to Warburton levels.

Covering Tavernier’s post-match media conference after the draw with Livingston, Football Scotland reported:

Asked if he was confident that Rangers would claw back the point difference, Tavernier said: “We have just got to concentrate on ourselves and go game by game in the league and we’ve just got to concentrate on trying to get the three points every single game.

“We can’t focus on them, we just have to focus on our performances and move on from that.”

Soon after Celtic lot 2-0 at St Mirren Tav was mouthing off with the Daily Record picking up on an in-house interview with ‘Rangers TV’:

We are relishing the task in hand and the games in hand. We are not far away. It is only two points and we have only played the first block of the season. There are plenty of games to play so it is down to us to keep our standards and the levels of consistency going through the games to create a real good momentum heading into the games.

Next up for Tav is a Champions League trip to Napoli followed quickly by visits from Aberdeen and Ajax to Ibrox.