As reported by The Daily Record, Rangers defender James Tavernier has not yet given up hope of challenging Celtic for the Scottish Premiership title.

What’s the story?

The Light Blues were again outclassed by their city rivals on Saturday in their own backyard, with Brendan Rodgers’ side showing no mercy in Celtic’s 2-0 victory. It was a performance as dominant as last year’s meetings between the two sides and a sign that the Hoops are going to be every bit as difficult to stop in domestic football this season.

However, James Tavernier refuses to concede the title quite yet and thinks they can still challenge.

As quoted by The Daily Record, the Rangers defender said:

For us we’ve got to take the positives and work on the negatives. We can definitely still challenge for the title. We’ve got three more games against them and we have to make the other big games count. It’s still early in the season so we’ve got to work hard and address Hamilton on Friday night now.

Unfortunately for Tavernier, despite his insistence, Rangers’ title challenge has little credibility to it and this certainly feels pretty hollow considering the manner of their recent defeat.

Rangers’ goals this season

In truth, there is little point trying to keep pace with Celtic in the league this season and perhaps their goals should be more realistic. Already 8 points behind, the gap between the Light Blues and the Hoops is just as big as it was this time last  year.

Focusing on finishing second and besting Aberdeen seems more realistic, alongside challenging in the domestic cup competitions where they can try to get at Celtic in one off occasions.

Tavernier’s commitment to competition is admirable but Rangers fans need to hear honesty and fanciful notions of a title challenge are just not realistic.