Rangers could suffer hammer blow in Celtic chase

After winning the Scottish Premiership title by a gap of 25 points, the Rangers must have been confident that they could go on a run of their own, as Celtic appeared to be in bad shape. The Hoops needed to undergo a transformation, having lost several key players like Odsonne Edouard, Scott Brown, Kris Ajer, Ryan Christie and others, and had had to bring in a new manager as well in the form of Ange Postecoglou.

A season on, Celtic are back at the top of the Scottish game, having won the Premiership and Scottish League Cup double last season, against all odds. On the other hand, the Rangers find themselves chasing their Glasgow rivals once again.

Thus, it is expected that they would look to strengthen their squad this summer, in order to help in that. But most of the recent rumours surrounding the Rangers have involved exits. The Calvin Bassey ones are well publicised and now, it looks like another player could also potentially head for the Ibrox exit door.

When asked about the James Tavernier to Bournemouth rumours, Alan Nixon tweeted out (via Born Celtic) that the Rangers captain is one of several players that the Cherries liked before, who may be revisited now.

Rangers could suffer hammer blow as they chase Celtic once again

If Tavernier does indeed end up leaving the Rangers this summer, it would be a hammer blow for them.

Not only is Tavernier the club captain but he has been one of their most effective players for a long time, despite playing at right-back.

No matter what you think about Tavernier, there is no questioning the fact that he is one of the most prolific right-backs in the game right now and the Rangers would have a tough time finding a replacement.

According to stats from Transfermarkt, Tavernier has scored 83 goals and provided 107 assists in 347 appearances for the Rangers.