As the leader and longest serving member of this Rangers squad, James Tavernier has been forced to bear the brunt of fan frustration this season.
Be it online or on the Ibrox doorstep, it’s been the skipper who has copped it in the neck from the seething support more than any other. Some of the criticism is fair. But there have been moments – most notably when Tavernier was subjected to a ridiculous personal rant as he led his team back to Govan following this month’s Old Firm defeat – when things have majorly crossed a line.
There’s no doubt, though, that with Tavernier attracting most of the bullets, it has allowed the rest of the Ibrox squad to duck for cover. So Jack Butland believes it’s only fair that when events turn gloomy, that’s when he and his team-mates must step up and attempt to lighten the captain’s load. And the Gers No.1 believes it’s that collective spirit that has enabled Tavernier to put the pain of his side’s Parkhead pasting behind him and lead from the front as Gers kicked off their Europa League campaign with this week’s impressive victory over Malmo.
“He never hides,” declared Butland. “He is someone who always stands up. But as a captain of a football club like this, it’s not an easy thing to do. What he’s done year on year, game on game, has come back through thick and thin, through really difficult moments. We’ve seen and witnessed some of the things that he’s been subject to.
“That’s part and parcel of being captain of this football club, but to come back and to keep doing what he does, to keep performing for us, to put the team on his shoulders with the penalties, with his play in general and what he does around the team. I can only imagine what he has to deal with on a daily basis – but what he does is perform.
“He keeps coming back and he keeps helping us and he keeps leading us. He inspires us all because for him, he lives it and he’s lived it for a long time. But it has to be like water off a duck’s back.
“When you have those defeats, the worst thing you can do is follow it up with another defeat. What you have to do is you have to dust yourself down, you’ve got to go again. That’s what this football club is all about and that’s what Tav does.
“So for us to see that, for him to continue to be a smiley face in the changing room, continuing to set standards and continuing to push, if he was to go the other way with us, it then becomes very difficult for everybody else.
“Tav is a very unflappable character. You see very little change in him day to day. He knows what he’s got to do, he knows the responsibility of wearing the badge, wearing the armband.
“If he was to come in days moping around, it would bring everyone else down. So that’s a testament to him. We’ve got to continue to support him, he’s still going to have massive moments in this football club. We’ve got huge ambitions for this season and he’s always a huge part of that.”
There’s a school of thought amongst a significant section of the Light Blues legions that to wear the armband at Ibrox, you have to embody the blood-and-thunder characteristics of archetypal Rangers skippers like Terry Butcher and Richard Gough. Butland, though, is adamant that Tavernier’s more understated style has its merits.
“There are different ways of leading and he has his way,” he said. “That’s what being a team is all about. Everyone, even between us here, we’re all different characters, we’ve all got different strengths. We’ve all got different ways of showing people what we’re about or leading.
“Some are more vocal, some like to put in knee-high challenges that you can’t do anymore. But the game has changed and people have changed.
“There are different characters in it, there are 25 different characters that make up a change room. What’s important is you get the best out of yourself and you get the best out of everybody else. It would be wrong for Tav to try and be someone he’s not and lose what he’s capable of doing or what he can do.
“As a captain, you’ve got to be true to yourself, you’ve got to lead in the way that you feel you can. He certainly does that.”
Butland appears to be back in top form after early-season blips. Add to that the return of home comforts as Rangers prepare to run out in front of a fully reopened Ibrox for the first time this season, and you can see why he is so excited for the future.
“It’s the best job in the world,” he beamed. “We play for this club, when it’s like this and you’ve got games coming, you’re thinking fast and you’re winning, well there’s no better place. We’ll be excited for it and a full Ibrox and we all know there’s no better place than that.”