Rangers legend Lorenzo Amoruso admits he’s a big fan of Ibrox hero James Tavernier but is not quite so enamoured about Aaron Ramsey, speaking to Tuttomercatoweb ahead of the Europa League final clash with Eintracht Frankfurt.
You could probably bet your house, your clothes, your car and everything you own on Tavernier – Rangers’ captain, set-piece king and the competition’s top scorer – leading out Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side out in Seville, without fearing that you’ll be out on the streets by Thursday morning.
The rampaging right-back is, after all, pretty much the first name on Rangers’ team sheet.
But you cannot say the same about a man who, after arriving on loan from Serie A giants Juventus, was supposed to take the Glasgow giants to a whole new level.
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Few would have imagined that Rangers would be just 90 minutes away from becoming the first Scotland-based outfit to win a European trophy since Sir Alex Ferguson’s legendary Aberdeen team.
Even fewer would have imagined that Ramsey, arguably the club’s most eye-catching signing since Paul Gascoigne, would play such a minor role in this Scottish success story.
“Very bad,” says Amoruso, who won a trio of Premiership titles between 1999 and 2003. “(Ramsey) looks like another player compared to the one we saw at Arsenal and for Wales.
“He arrived in Italy and has not integrated. The same (at Rangers).”
The former Ibrox stalwart could hardly have been more complimentary of Tavernier, however, expressing his disappointment that the free-scoring, Bradford-born skipper has never earned an England call-up despite his talismanic performances north of the border.
“A splendid boy. He was young when he arrived in Glasgow and he made himself heard on the pitch. He had no problem with his personality,” says Amoruso, who admits recomending Tavernier to Serie A clubs.
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“I recommended him in Italy a couple of years ago when he was little known because he has a predisposition to attack a lot, he is quick, and he knows how to defend.
“It’s a bit like what happened to me. The best player in Scotland, I made some incredible performances (for Rangers) and yet I was never called up for the national team.”
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