Tavernier and Co glad to be greeted at Glasgow Airport
AT first James Tavernier thought it must have been some ungodly queue at passport control.
And that is pretty much the last thing you need when it is 1.30am on Friday morning, you have just flown back from Russia and have to lift yourself for the biggest match of your season in around 48 hours’ time.
But instead, Rangers and their captain – subject to a late, rejected loan bid from West Bromwich Albion yesterday – returned to a bona fide reception committee at Glasgow Airport.
Estimates of how many of their travelling fans opted to wait around to welcome the team back into the country vary, but it was understandable if they were a trifle jubilant considering the journey the club has been on since that humbling reverse to Progres Niederkorn 12 months ago.
You didn’t have to look too hard for the symbolism. Garlanded by the fans on Thursday night, the last manager to take Rangers into European competition ended up arguing with his reception committee of supporters from a bush in Luxembourg.
No matter how rowdy, though, the throng which had waited around to welcome Steven Gerrard back into the country after that sterling backsto-the-wall effort against Ufa which took the club back to the Europa League group stages, Tavernier knows all this would be small beer compared to the scenes which accompany a first Rangers win at Celtic Park since October 2010.
“I didn’t expect the reception we got at all,” said Tavernier.
“I thought it was the queue going to the passport control, not people waiting. But it was great to see what it meant to the fans and a win at Parkhead would mean the world to them too. That is what we will aim to do.”
“That was a nice surprise for us,” admitted Gerrard. “We never got told. We got off the plane and saw it on a TV and I thought ‘oh there’s about 50, 60 fans there’ then we got our card marked that it was a couple of thousand more.
“It was a nice surprise for the players, they’d obviously put a lot of effort into the game and the night and then they had a long flight so it was great for them to get the adulation from the supporters. It was well deserved.”
Rangers’ reward is a glamorous continental tour which will take them to the homes of Villarreal, Spartak Moscow and Rapid Vienna.
“It’s fantastic for the supporters and for my team,” said Gerrard.