Barjonas on a high after new deal

either. He has that arrogance, in a good way, and a confidence to keep playing the way he does.

“For me, over the course of a 50-game season I think he will have a big impact in 40 of them.

“In the bigger games he will be asked questions defensively but that is the modernday full-back.

“Their weakness now is their defending. Unfortunately you can’t have everything because if you did, you would be worth £50 million and the top boys in England would be after you.

“For most of the games, Tavernier will be an asset to Rangers, although there will be times he costs them points.”

Kris Boyd was speaking at Ayrshire College’s Kilmarnock Campus where his KB9 Academy is involved in providing free coaching to local children through the Connecting Communities initiative. Jamie Barjonas has targeted a return to the Rangers first team after extending his contract.

The midfielder has been handed an extra year on top of his current deal, which had been due to expire at the end of this season.

The 20-year-old made the most recent of his nine Rangers firstteam appearances in December 2017 and spent last season on loan at Bury and Raith.

But he was promoted to the first-team dressing room and training sessions after working hard on his fitness over pre-season and he is now looking to kick on again.

Barjonas, pictured, told Rangers TV: “I worked really hard in the off-season so coming back in June I had got my body in really good physical shape. “I knew that, technically, I was good enough so it was just about the fitness and the body-fat side of things so I had done really well.

“This season has been good for me. I had a strong pre-season so the gaffer moved me up to the first team and I am really enjoying every minute of it.”

Barjonas added: “The manager has said he has been really pleased with me since coming back in preseason and said I worked really hard.

“He said I deserve the contract and they want to give me another year, so for me, it is another opportunity to improve and impress.

“It gives me another year to get to where I want to be, which is playing with Rangers’ first team.”