James Tavernier was forced to take a seat in Athens.
But Philippe Clement is adamant the Rangers faithful haven’t seen their skipper’s last stand just yet. The right-back was the surprise absentee as the team lines dropped at the Karaiskakis Stadium. Not once in his nine-and-a-half year stint had the Englishman before been left out when the stakes where this high.
But Clement had a major decision to make after watching the captain labour through Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Motherwell. And to be fair to the big Belgian, he got it spot on as he brought in Dujon Sterling to start, with the Ibrox utility man putting on a solid display as he shut out Portuguese winger Gerson Martins. But even when Sterling limped off early in the second half, he still didn’t turn to his 33-year-old chief lieutenant, with Tavernier only introduced five minutes from time in a midfield role.
To those outside of Ibrox, it looks to all intents and purposes that this is the beginning of the end for the veteran stopper. But Clement insists he still has a major role to play. Quizzed on the big selection call, he said: “That’s never an easy decision but I want more than one captain in the group.
“Also, if you come to a certain age, you cannot play 60 games anymore at the same level. So, that’s normal. We knew that before the season. We talked about that before the season also. Tav is just a captain.
“He will continue like that and he will play more games this season. It’s about competition for the spots for everybody. It’s not about one player or one ego or one thing. It’s about one team. It’s about winning together.
“And he showed it also. Now, in the last couple of weeks also, by playing in a higher position in moments and doing the job for the team. So, that’s what I expect. That’s Rangers. One team, one family. Everybody going for one thing.”
Clement was disappointed his team didn’t pick up an even better result than their 1-1 draw in Greece after watching Cyriel Dessers miss two golden chances before burying the equaliser at the third attempt. But he can’t have any complaints about the show of resilience his side put on to frustrate last year’s Conference League winners.
John Souttar put on another show of bravery as he threw himself in front of shot after shot. Robin Propper looked far steadier than he has domestically of late. And in midfield, Connor Barron and Nico Raskin ran themselves ragged shutting down José Luis Mendilibar’s outfit.
A delighted Clement said: “Nico is growing. We had a very important player (in John Lundstram) last season In the midfield also. It’s now without a lot of experience. It’s now two young guys with a lot of energy who are still learning details of the game.
“But they are really hungry to learn. And we did a lot of video sessions in the last last couple of weeks. And they take really good steps forward. So, they both played a massive game for me. And Mohamed Diomande also. In his role that he had. So, it was important against them to have control of the midfield.
“Because otherwise you always lose the game against Olympiacos. And not only defending wise. But also offensive wise, to pick out the right passes in the moments we could make the transition. So yeah. I’m pleased about that.
“But that’s the nice thing about this group. It’s not a start. The start was in August or for some players in September. But it’s the beginning. They can only grow. They can only become better if they keep this hunger, desire. And we’re going to work hard on that. To go in every detail.
“To make things better. And to give them more experiences. So evenings like this are crucial for that. They learn a lot against opponents from this level. And they are hungry to become better. So they will grow out of that.’ And these young players too.”
Dessers may have spurned those big moments before the break. But the Nigerian certainly showed he can shrug off mistakes when he fired home the goal that cancelled out Ayoub El Kaaba’s strike for the Greeks.
It was a repeat of the frontman’s contribution at Hampden at the weekend, when he also passed up a string of openings in the first 45 before bouncing back with a goal after the break. And for Clement, it was proof of the 29-year-old’s steely resolve.
He said: ”It is crucial, that is why we have been working not only him but the whole squad from October last season but we had to start again. This is football.
“And I want to see that mentality. Every time. It’s very important in the way I want to see a dressing room. In the way I want to see a team on the pitch. “And the last couple of months, they had a few knocks on their heads. That we could use as a lesson to get this mentality.
“We have Cyril. But we have other examples also. Vaclav was really down. After Malmo early on, Lyon, missing the chances. He reacted in the right way.
“Because it’s so crucial in football. That you don’t look back and look forward and you dig in every time. When things don’t go your way. You need to force it your way. And that’s what we want to do in the next couple of months.”