Philippe Clement reveals the Rangers day one chat with James Tavernier that left him in NO doubt he's the man to lead

One of the questions Philippe Clement had to face as he sat down for his first grilling from the Scottish media was on the topic of James Tavernier’s future as Rangers captain.

The query got short shrift, batted away with what we now recognise as the Ibrox gaffer’s trademark Belgian bluntness. What we didn’t know at the time was the newly appointed boss had already sat his skipper down to perform an interrogation of his own. The answers he got were all Clement needed to know – confirming he’d found a man with whom he could work. The trust formed that day has been crucial to the huge strides Rangers have made in the nine weeks since, with the right-back acting as an amplifier on the pitch for the instructions Clement has delivered from the dugout.

And it was Tavernier who provided the right answer again on Sunday, with his winning Viaplay Cup Final strike against Aberdeen the perfect retort to the critics who demand the Englishman is stripped of the armband when things go wrong. With his new celebratory swing, the 31-year-old swatted away his detractors with the same emphatic force his manager employed while clamping down on questions over the captaincy.

“If he’s not appreciated by people, I don’t know why,” said Clement as he was again quizzed on Tavernier yesterday. “But he was appreciated by me from the very first day.

“What I saw, his personality, how he has been doing things on and off the pitch. That’s the most important thing. He was the first guy I talked with when I stepped into this building. It was important for me to feel what was going on and to know those things fast so I could change things fast.

“It was a really open talk and afterwards James and a few other guys have been my right hand in this building