BILLY BREMNER MEMORIAL JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Date: 15th September 2024
Will anyone want Mr. Tavernier…
“Yer old, there, I have said it.”
Crestfallen, Mr. Tavernier looks at his photo and in the late summer downpour it is difficult to know if he is just drookit or greeting…
“You cannot have the card. You don’t qualify, son.”
The final word hurts like an insult thrown at him from his parents as the woman in front of him looks old enough to be … his sister…
Son. Don’t qualify…
The final ignominy was when the woman behind the desk looked at him like he was a sinister villain in to capture his latest victim. When he realised the implications of that look, looked around the foyer and saw that there were one or two men looking at him in precisely the same way, he decided to get out smartly and hopefully without being challenged.
It’s been a miserable morning.
Picture the scene…
Glasgow in the rain. His final destination in his quest that morning – the Quay cinema by then side of the Clyde.
Unlike the romantic shots of a Paris gleaming with the glow of romantic expectation, nobody finds even the new bridge between Partick and Govan to be the place of romantic beauty that shall foster joy 9 months after its opening.
The streets feel grey, the buildings old and Mr. Tavernier feels ancient.
But he is only 32…
Today has been a chastening one.
Waking up to the challenge he set himself of trying to prove his manager, Inspector Clement wrong in the decision he took to remove Mr. Tavernier from active duty and become transferred out of the station locally known as The Big Hoose and be transferred to … somewhere else. Turkey has even been mentioned…
His greatest fear?
The East End…
And so, with the criticisms ringing in his ears, Mr. Tavernier decided that, if he could prove Inspector Clement of the Surete in Govan wrong by showing him that other people thought he was a young guy, he could keep his job.
So, he began the quest three weeks ago when he applied for a Young Scot card. The extra benefit he found out was that with a Young Scot card he was going to enjoy free bus travel all over Scotland. Never mind the fact he was last on a public bus when he was seven, he thought that a wee tour of the city would help him show the Inspector that he was worthy of being retained.
That morning Young Scot had rejected his bid because he was too old. He also wasn’t Scottish, but they said because he lived here, he would have qualified, but his age for a “Young” Scot card was the barrier.
And so, with more determination due to that rejection he walked the full length of the city streets into the city to try and get a half price train ticket.
Despite the fact he had not been on a train since he was sixteen, he decided that a wee trip up to Perth to see the sights was in order. Unfortunately for Mr. Tavernier, when he got to Glasgow Queen Street the wee woman on the ticket barrier had stopped him. Buying the ticket had been dead easy because they had they ticket machines, so nobody asked for his proof of age. But the mistake he made, because he had no idea how to get through the automated ticket thing, was to ask for help. As soon as the woman saw the ticket, he was sent back to get the right one. He left the station aw embarrassed at being found out.
To punish himself he kept walking and was now standing outside the cinema at the Quay. He had tried his luck at getting in to see the new film about they wee yella fellas. To be fair he did start to doubt himself when he was the only man of his age standing in the queue without a kid by his side.
But nothing ventured…
He was now sitting in the car park.
Where had it all gone wrong? He had been adored by his teammates, adored by the people he served, and he thought the hierarchy loved him. He had given them such loyalty…
But a fall out with the Inspector, last week outside the office in the East End when things had gone badly for them inside that office shot into his mind.
He remembered the conversation with dread.
The Inspector had confronted him, not just about his performance in the building but about something that Mr. Tavernier had said when he first met the Inspector. Hearing him speak fluent French, Mr. Tavernier had though the Inspector was French. When he discovered that he was in fact, Belgian, Mr. Tavernier asked out loud if that meant he was a “pretend Frenchie”. The Inspector heard him. To make up for that, and having googled the country, Mr. Tavernier had sent one of those cheap boxes of chocolates made into shells because the guy at the Barras said they came from Belgium and were made of really good Belgian chocolate. They hadn’t, they weren’t but were what the locals called, “foosty.” The Inspector since then had become frosty.
And now his recent performances in the job were being heavily criticised.
But with a shrug, Mr. Tavernier decided there was little he could do and went off to KFC on the corner. At least he thought, he could get a Happy Meal there…
Whilst the author asserts his right to this as an original piece of work, you cannot get a Happy Meal at KFC, unless you know differently, so, this is clearly a piece of fiction.
The fact is that James Tavernier looks like he is getting closer to the exit door. A recent report on the BBC said, “The full-back, 32, was involved in a verbal confrontation outside Ibrox in the wake of Rangers’ 3-0 defeat at Celtic Park on 1 September. “He never came to my office, ‘I want to go’ and there was never an offer in that way towards the club,” manager Clement said. “In eight months, I never seen a player making so many transfers because I read so many times that he was going to go there and there and there – and he’s still here.” However, he has attracted criticism, which Clement says comes with the territory of being skipper. “It’s not a nice thing,” said the Belgian. “In the moments when it’s really good, it’s really nice to be captain. In moments when the team doesn’t perform, it’s not only about you, it’s about the team and you don’t reach the expectations of the fans at moments, you’re the first one that they talk to, that they yell to.” And so, whether Tavernier gets his much talked about move to Turkey or whether he is moved down south in the next transfer window, some are asking if he qualifies as a club legend or not, or if he still even qualifies to be in the team.
Posted in: Latest News
Tags: Football, Rangers, Scottish football