The skipper has challenged his teammates to prove they deserve to be part of the new era set to begin at Ibrox

James Tavernier admits the Rangers squad are fighting for their futures after crashing out of the Europa League.

The Ibrox side saw their last remaining shot at silverware crumble on Thursday night as they were swept aside by awesome Athletic Bilbao.

While they now face a weary trudge to the Premiership finish line, rivals Celtic can take another huge step towards securing a sixth Treble in nine years when they face St Johnstone in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final.

It’s that crushing era of dominance that now has the Gers faithful desperately waiting for news on the impending American takeover being led by US tycoon Andrew Cavenagh and his partners from the San Francisco 49ers.

Tavernier knows that huge deal has the potential to turn Rangers’ fortunes upside down - and he’s warned the men currently at the club they better act now if they want to remain on board.

He said: “Yes, it's about pride.

“It’s about fighting for the opportunity to play for the club, to play for yourself, to be in the thoughts for next season because obviously there's going to be lots of change and it's about pride to finish off the season as strong as possible.

“That's obviously my focus as the captain and obviously the gaffer to get the right selections and to get the right team that are going to be putting it all in for the remaining games.”

Rangers started the season suffering Champions League agony as they crashed out of the qualifiers at the hands of Dynamo Kyiv.

But since then, the Light Blue legions have been led on another Thursday night thrill ride across the continent, with their team putting on brave shows in Malmo, Nice, Athens, Manchester and Istanbul.

But the Basque Country was a step too far caretaker gaffer Barry Ferguson and his players.

Tavernier - the man who led Gers out in Seville when they reached the final of the competition three years ago - told RangersTV:“There have been great memories throughout the journey.

“I'm sure that we've given the fans some real special nights, but to lose in this manner, that's the one that will hurt the most because of the great opportunity that we had to come here and to try to revisit it. But we came up short.”