Jack Butland threw his weight behind “unflappable” James Tavernier after the Rangers skipper was forced again recently to show his mettle in the face of adversity.
The full-back suffered the brunt of fans’ anger following the damaging 3-0 William Hill Premiership defeat at Celtic Park at the beginning of the month, which confirmed the Light Blues’ continuing struggle against their Old Firm rivals.
Tavernier, who signed from Wigan in 2015, was confronted by one seething supporter outside Ibrox later in the day as he made his way to his car, with the unpleasant exchange shown on social media.
Since then Rangers have recovered with three successive wins and Tavernier played his part in Rangers’ best performance of the season, a 2-0 Europa League win over Malmo in Sweden on Thursday.
Butland backed Tavernier to the hilt with the 31-year-old former Birmingham, Crystal Palace and Stoke goalkeeper, who has won nine caps for England, saying: “He is something and someone that 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, is 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 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.”
Butland is looking forward to returning to Ibrox on Sunday which will be fully opened for the visit of Hibernian in the William Hill Premiership, following the completion of the Copland Stand refurbishment.
He said: “It’s another game, it’s what we live for. It’s the best job in the world.
“We play for this club, when it’s like this and you’ve got games coming, thick and fast and you’re winning. 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.”
Butland believes Rangers will go into the match confident after a convincing win over the Swedish champions in the first of eight Europa League games.
He said: “It feels really good, really good. I thought it was one of the best performances I think we’ve put collectively together for a long time.
“I think it’s been coming, we’ve been building and working on a lot of things.
“It was a joy to watch, I thought the boys were brilliant.”
