To parrot a catchphrase that has rather cruelly become synonymous with the Rangers captain, I’m sure that James Tavernier has been disappointed to have lost his place in the side under Russell Martin in the early stages of this season.
It is quite the indictment on the level of performances that his replacement Max Aarons has been turning in, though, that many fans who would have been quite happy to see Tavernier chased from Ibrox at various stages of his Rangers career are now pining for his reinstatement to the starting XI.
And rightly so. It is a further indictment of the club's transfer business this summer that not only is the soon-to-be 34-year-old Tavernier their best option at right back, but he could very well still be their best player. At the very least, he is among them.
Tavernier splits opinion more effectively than he splits defences, and his legacy at Ibrox when he does finally end his long association with the club will be a complicated one.
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For some, he should be acknowledged for the pivotal role he played in delivering ‘55’ (denying Celtic a tenth title in-a-row in the process) and his critical contribution to the club’s run to the Europa League Final in Seville.
For others, these were the all-too occasional highs. To critics of Tavernier, he is the poster boy for the last decade of near-constant mediocrity and frequent failure that has stalked the corridors of Ibrox, and a major part of the problem in the establishment of a culture where finishing second best to Celtic has become acceptable.
For every fan that would applaud his loyalty to the club, there will be another who would question whether he would have been able to command the sort of extravagant wages he is on at Rangers anywhere else.
The truth of it all is probably somewhere in the middle. There is some truth indeed, perhaps, in all of it.
A good Rangers player, maybe even a very good one. Arguably, when it comes to value for money - in terms of his transfer fee, at least - one of the best pound-for-pound signings the club have made in the modern era. But still, and there is no escaping this fact, he has lifted just three major domestic honours in his decade at the club.
You could argue that it isn’t his fault that his Rangers career has coincided with a period of undoubted advantage for Celtic on the balance sheet. For all that fans of their great rivals and even their manager Brendan Rodgers may be once again needling their board to loosen the purse strings with an eye to competing beyond these borders, they have always been able and willing to outspend Rangers comfortably whenever required to overwhelmingly maintain their domestic dominance.
And during this period, even allowing for that financial disadvantage, the recruitment around him at Rangers has frequently been abysmal, both in terms of filling the royal blue jerseys and when it comes to filling the Ibrox dugout.
Sadly, for their supporters, it looks as though the arrival of new ownership in the form of 49ers Enterprises has yet to alter that particular sorry state of affairs. Yet again, as we enter the last few days of the transfer window, we have a Rangers manager who looks like he is in the wrong movie, while some of their new signings look as though they have their boots on the wrong feet.
And none more so than Aarons. Being kind, he looks a little overwhelmed, and is taking time to adjust to the weight of the Rangers jersey.
He is in danger though of becoming a poster boy in his own right for the baffling propensity of successive Rangers regimes to fish in that pond infested with lower-end EPL fringe men and English Championship players (from where Tavernier came) that has landed them few prize catches, and to which many of them are swiftly thrown back.
To offer the embattled Martin some kind of credit, his plan to replace Tavernier in the longer term is sound enough. Sooner or later, Rangers will have to find a way to operate without him. But it seems clear that that moment, and a viable replacement, has not yet arrived.
In the short term, with his team showing precious few signs of the dominant, high energy new style he has promised, Martin needs to batten down the hatches and get through this week.
He has already lost the vast majority of the fanbase. If he ever had them on side in the first place. He faces an away trip to Club Brugge tonight, where things could get really ugly. And then there is the small matter of the first Old Firm fixture of the season at Ibrox on Sunday.
Whether he plays Tavernier or not, the way his side is currently performing, there is a fair old chance they could get turned over in both matches in any case. And given the problems that Daizen Maeda usually poses for Tavernier, it seems somewhat counterintuitive to put him forward as the best option on the right of the defence.
But this is where Rangers and their manager currently are. Where is the leadership coming from, if not from Tavernier? Where is the creativity coming from, or even a goal threat, beyond him and young Findlay Curtis? Both Djeidi Gassama and Oliver Antman have shown flashes of promise on the wings, but the more they adhere to the strictures of Martin's system, the more neutered they appear to be.
It is hard to overstate just how pivotal these next few days are for the Rangers manager, even this early in his tenure, if he is to have even the slightest scintilla of hope in turning around perceptions of him and saving his job.
There is little point in thinking about the long-term plan for his captain or anyone else when the reality is that the short term will dictate whether he is around long enough to see it. Martin has to give himself and Rangers the best possible chance in these games, and that means turning to Tavernier.
As disappointing as that will be, I’m sure, for many.
