Danny Röhl wants captain James Tavernier to finish his time at Rangers with the “beautiful moment” of lifting the Scottish Premiership trophy.
The 34-year-old right-back announced on Wednesday he will leave the club this summer after 11 years at Ibrox.
Signed from Wigan, Tavernier has scored 144 goals in 562 appearances, led Rangers to the Premiership in 2021 and the Europa League final in 2022, and has also won the Scottish Cup and League Cup.
With five post-split fixtures remaining, Rangers sit one point behind leaders Hearts and two ahead of Celtic as they prepare to host fourth-placed Motherwell on Sunday.
Asked about Tavernier at his pre-match media conference, Röhl said: “It’s a big one, big news for you, for us, for the club, for the fans, for all of them. Since I have been here he has been a good captain, he leads the group on and off the pitch. He’s a legend of the club and has made an amazing career here.”
“He saw all the good moments. He’s also saw some not so good moments and hopefully at the end of the season he can see again a beautiful moment,” Röhl added. “For big players should have also have a big goodbye, and the biggest goodbye would be going with a title.”
Tavernier’s decision surprised some, coming two days after he had said in interviews he was content to wait until the summer to decide his future. When asked if he would have liked Tavernier to stay another year if it was up to him, Röhl replied: “That’s not a topic for today. He made the final decision. We were very clear on our process. We said, if the time is right, we will speak about him. He gave me the information before it came out. It was very fair from him. He spoke to the group and I think the most important thing is now, you have 21 days to go. Five games, focus on these five games, and then you will have an incredible goodbye, what he deserves, and this is all that is important for me, for us, for the group, focus to what happens now.”
Röhl also revealed left-back Tuur Rommens and striker Ryan Naderi will miss out again through injury but could return for the final four games.