Former Celtic star Kris Commons has stuck the boot into Rangers captain James Tavernier for comments made last week, whilst also comparing him to Hoops skipper Scott Brown.
Tavernier made some eyebrow-raising remarks before the defeat to Hamilton in his programme notes. The Ibrox captain pretty much claimed that his side weren’t good enough to handle the heat when under pressure.
It was totally bizarre, and it came on a night when Celtic further stretched their advantage at the top of the Premiership to 13 points.
And Commons has let rip at Tavernier in his Scottish Daily Mail column (The Verdict, 09/03, page 20), as he stated that Brown would never hit out with such nonsense.
“For the skipper to say something like that publicly just makes the whole club look weak and it’s symptomatic of why Rangers have buckled under pressure.
“There’s no winning mentality at the club (Rangers). Never in a month of Sundays would Scott Brown come out and say something like that. If anyone else at Celtic spoke like that in public, he would come down on them like a ton of bricks.
“For Tavernier to be swanning around in a Lamborghini just makes it all look worse. He can’t handle the heat, yet he’s driving around in the Batmobile as if he’s some kind of big shot. A parting of the ways looks inevitable.”
Brown showed the way back in December
You only need to go back three months to when Brown himself was in a sorry situation. After our 2-1 defeat to Rangers at Celtic Park before the winter break, the Hoops were toiling as recent performances against our Ibrox rivals hadn’t been great.
However, Brown managed to bring together both honesty and desire in his comments post-match. He admitted that there was a problem in how Celtic were performing against Rangers and stated that they had to find a new game-plan to tackle them (Daily Record).
The difference here is that not once did Brown say we weren’t good enough. Not once did he claim that the Celtic team couldn’t handle the bottle against Rangers. He kept his head high and was honest but committed to the cause.
There is a thing in football in there being too much honesty. That’s exactly what the Rangers captain showed in his programme notes. There was nothing for his supporters to feel confident about.
It reeks of a loser’s mentality like Commons says, and it’s no surprise to see the former Celtic man let rip at both Rangers and Tavernier here. It was, to a large degree, a real embarrassment for them, and is a sign of how different our club runs compared to their own.
The day a Celtic player comes out and says we aren’t good enough or don’t have bottle? Good luck to them when it comes to facing Brown.
Do these contrasting comments between Tavernier and Brown show the difference in mentality between them? Give us your verdict in the comments below.
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