Jack Butland hails Rangers captain James Tavernier for continuing to stand strong in the face of adversity

Shortly after the whistle blew at Eleda Stadium on Thursday night, James Tavernier led the Rangers players to the corner of the arena where their supporters were housed.

One by one, Tavernier and his teammates applauded the fans and in turn received praise from those who made the trip to Sweden.

A 2-0 win away to Malmö in the Europa League was a result few expected, a shot in the arm that breathed new life into Rangers’ season.

Those scenes at the end were also a far cry from what Tavernier had to endure just a few weeks ago after the 3-0 defeat at Celtic Park.

Video footage emerged of the Rangers captain being verbally abused by his own supporters shortly after the crushing Old Firm defeat.

At that point, there was no guarantee that Tavernier would stick around to see another European campaign.

He became the subject of interest from several clubs in Turkey and given the way those same Rangers fans had vilified him, there was a feeling that his time at the club may be coming to an end.

But the victory in Sweden on Thursday night felt like a turning point, not only in Rangers’ season, but also in Tavernier’s love-hate relationship with Rangers supporters.

Since the defeat at Celtic Park four weeks ago, Rangers have recorded three wins and kept three clean sheets in a row.

Jack Butland probably couldn’t believe his luck when it came to the quiet evening he had against the Allsvenskan champions on Thursday, but the Rangers goalkeeper praised Tavernier’s resilience.

It would not be an exaggeration to suggest this has been the most testing period of Tavernier’s Rangers career, but Butland insists the side remain fully behind their captain.

“He never hides,” said the England goalkeeper. ‘He is someone who always gets up. As captain of a football club like this, that is not easy.

“What he has done year after year, game after game, has come back through thick and thin, during very difficult moments.

“We’ve seen and experienced some of the things he’s been exposed to. That’s part of being captain of this football club. But to come back and 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 has lived it for a long time. But it must be like water off a duck’s back.

‘When you have such defeats, the worst thing you can do is another defeat. What you have to do is dust yourself off, you have to go again.

‘That’s what this football club is all about and that’s what Tav does.

“So if we see that he continues to be a smiling face in the dressing room, continues to set standards and continues to push, it will be very difficult for everyone else if he goes the other way with us. .

‘Tav is a very unflappable character. You see very little change in him from day to day. He knows what to do, he knows the responsibility of wearing the badge and wearing the armband.

“If he came in and had to sulk for days, it would bring everyone else down. So that’s a testament to him.

‘We must continue to support him. He will still have great moments at this football club. We have huge ambitions for this season and he always plays a big role in that.’

The question of whether or not Tavernier should become Rangers captain has been hanging over him almost since the moment he embraced the armband in 2018.

He was contracted until the summer of 2026 and after initially joining the club in 2015, he ended up providing ten years of service to Rangers.

In terms of his captaincy style, Butland would argue that there is more than one way to skin a cat. The days when captains had to be extremely aggressive alpha males are a thing of the past.

Speaking about Tavernier’s qualifications as captain, the Rangers keeper continued: ‘There are different ways to lead and he has his way.

“Everyone, even between us here, we all have different characters, we all have different strengths. We all have different ways of showing people what we stand for or what we lead.

“Some are louder, some like to take on knee-high challenges that you can’t do anymore. But the game has changed and the people have changed.

‘There are different characters in it, there are 25 different characters that form a dressing room. The most important thing is that you get the best out of yourself and that you get the best out of others.

“It would be wrong for Tav to try to be someone he’s not and lose what he’s capable of or what he can do. As a captain you have to be true to yourself, you have to lead the way you think you can. He certainly does.’

The victory in Malmö on Thursday evening was much more comfortable than the 2-0 score would suggest. To be honest, Rangers should have won by three or four.

Philippe Clement’s side were guilty of missing some golden opportunities, even as the manager acknowledged the performance as their best of the season so far.

Rangers will now turn their attention to a Premiership clash with Hibs at Ibrox tomorrow afternoon, hoping to revive their domestic campaign after such a positive result in Europe.

“I thought it was one of the best performances we’ve done together in a long time,” Butland said. “I think it’s coming, we’ve been building and working on a lot of things.

‘Again, it’s a team that gets overloaded and they have a lot of rotations and try to make it difficult in 1v1 and things like that. The stats will tell: the boys limited Malmö to very few entries in the final third, let alone shots on target.

‘It was a pleasure to watch, I thought the boys were brilliant.

‘Look, we don’t want to wax lyrical about it. We can say how well we did against Malmö, what we did and we deserve that. But we all know what this club is all about; we have to follow it up against Hibs on Sunday. It is important that we keep building and keep pushing.”