The Ibrox full back sparked a title celebration on Tuesday night with the goal that won the Championship to set his team up for a massive Hampden double header against Peterhead in Sunday’s Petrofac Cup Final and a clash with Ronny Deila’s men in the Scottish Cup semi final a week later.
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NEIL LENNON reckons Celtic will reap the financial rewards of the return of Rangers to the Premiership next season.
“Our main thought at the beginning of the season, and the pre-season, was to win the Championship and then we go onto the rest and try to do well in everything else”.
“With a combination of investment, a good management team which we believe we have, a good recruitment structure which we have put in place behind the scenes and also a progressive youth structure, putting that together, there is no reason why we can’t compete pretty quickly”. But it’s good to have that much pressure because you need to perform and send the fans home happy.
“I think we are getting better and better”. We have supported them thus far and we will support them going forward.
“I’m delighted they are back again”. “Frank McParland is the key guy and we have a lot of confidence in him. We’re back up – in more ways than one”.
How Rangers might cope in the top flight is going to be debated often enough between now and the big kick-off on the first weekend in August.
‘We’ve heard a lot of teams doing a lot of talking throughout the season, but we’ve just stayed quiet and concentrated on ourselves every week, ‘ said Tavernier, the 24-year-old adding: ‘We’ve taken it one game at a time and just did what we had to do.
The Italian, a fans’ favourite in his six seasons at Ibrox from 1997-2003, said: “To see my old club back in the Premiership is absolutely fantastic”.
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He said: “We pressed a lot and tried to create chances, but they defended really well and the ‘keeper pulled off some great saves, so I don’t think the scoreline tells the story of the game”. It was a great feeling to walk around the pitch and be able to celebrate with them. After losing their two UEFA Champions League spots due to poor performances in European club competitions, with a strong Celtic and Rangers – that will happen now as Celtic can’t take things for granted and Rangers will be desperate to usurp their crosstown rivals immediately – there’s a chance Scotland’s coefficient will climb and they’ll at least grab two UCL qualification spots back. “But we had travelled, through all of the leagues”.
