James Tavernier, born on the eerily unsettling date of October 31st, 1991 (making him a sprightly 33, not that you'd guess watching his pace) hails from jolly England. Carving out a career as a defender who seems inescapably tethered to the right back spot, he terrorises the opposition (and occasionally his own fans) for Rangers by donning the rather unimaginative number 2 jersey. He measures an unassailable 5'8" (or 1.75m for the metrically inclined among us) and hauls around a bodyweight of 12st 10lb (or 81kg for those who abandon the Queen's measurements).
In July 2008, young Tavernier signed up for the rollercoaster that is Newcastle United, stamping his papers as a trainee. In the 2012-2013 season, he managed to get his boots dirty on the pitch for a grand total of two first team games. An illustrious start, wouldn't you say?
A string of loans came next in this nomadic football life of his. January 2011 saw Tavernier shipped off to Gateshead where he participated in 13 matches plied out in the high stakes battleground of the National League. Carlisle United were next in line to acquire his services on loan, where our man made 16 appearances. Sheffield Wednesday decided they'd also like to borrow Jim for a while, netting him for 6 glorious matches in the Championship. Keeping pace with his rapidly stamped passport, MK Dons and Shrewsbury Town also rented his rights, where he participated in an underwhelming total of 8 games.
Rotherham United saw something in Tavernier that others had missed, and they took him on loan, allowing him to actually get some game time, with 27 appearances and a surprising 5 goals in the 2013-14 season. However, Newcastle must have grown weary of constantly packing his suitcase, as they finally let him go permanently to Wigan Athletic in June 2014 - for a fee so secret that even the spymasters at MI6 are still trying to work it out. After 11 games with Wigan, and a subsequent brief loan to Bristol City, Tavernier found himself making the lonesome journey north.
In the summer of 2015, Wigan Athletic whispered sweet nothings of around £200k in Rangers' ears and they, smitten, accepted. Thus began Tavernier's true career, eventually notching up a seriously hard-worked total of 330 appearances and scoring a quite remarkable 76 goals. These sit alongside some staggeringly decent stats in several cup competitions and he even managed to meander his way into a handful of continental games - causing more than a few raised eyebrows in the Europa League.
So there you have it, the curious case of James Tavernier: trainee, loanee, journeyman, goal-scoring defender, and Rangers stalwart. Quite the whirlwind, wouldn't you say?
