SPFL friendlies: Rangers address James Tavernier's future after eight-goal thriller as jeered Hearts slump

Cyriel Dessers and Tom Lawrence both netted doubles for Philippe Clement's men in the German capital. Despite speculation over his future amid a bid from Trabzonspor, captain James Tavernier played 60 minutes for the visitors, while striker Danilo continued his comeback with a ten-minute cameo at the end of the match.

Clement was quizzed on Tavernier's future after the match and the Belgian responded: "I don’t see a situation. I told you guys, Todd [Cantwell] is the only one who came to my office and said he wanted to leave - that’s it.

"I don’t know [if there has been interest], there is maybe interest in a lot of players, I don’t know. He is a player for Rangers and is playing for Rangers. As long as players don’t say they want to leave, [they are] Rangers players. I think for every player who was here or in training, who is not saying they want to leave. So we will see."

On the performance against Bundesliga opposition, Clement added: “There were a lot of good things in this game, defensively we need to do things better but that is normal with new players who are coming in. They are young, so they will learn a lot out of this and it’s also good for players coming out of injury that they could have game time.

"You see the team grow, and you see it week by week, that is what we aim for and that is what we work hard for with all the squad to make them better - we are step by step going towards our goal. There were some real team goals, with good combination play and good finishing so it is really important. We had some other good actions also where the goalkeeper has had a few good saves.

“It is important to have offensive players who have stats, and it is important in the number 10 role that you have somebody who is in the right positions and making the right runs. In the way we play football you always get the chances to score. Tom did that role brilliantly today, so I am really pleased about the way he played not only with the ball but without the ball.”

Rangers start their Premiership next Saturday against Hearts, who went down 3-0 to Fleetwood Town in their last friendly before the competitive action kicks off. Head coach Steven Naismith labelled the performance as poor against English League Two opposition, with some travelling Hearts fans booing off their players at the interval.

“It was poor. We knew the way they would play,” said Naismith “We wanted to see, basically, if we think we are a good enough team to stick to a shape and know that there will be issues within that and can we get the better of the game? On today's evidence, we can't. I think a lot of it was down to energy and application more than anything else.

“I can understand the frustration when you are getting beat 3-0 in a friendly, it's more so they have travelled the distance they have, they expect a better performance. That's simple. It's one thing the new guys will take away, there is a demand here. It is something I speak about a lot."