I don’t want to go down in history as a Rangers captain who has won no major silverware

Wallace out to show he can be a winner as well as a captain

FOR Lee Wallace, the arrival of Portugal international Bruno Alves in the Rangers dressing room was enough to prompt a brief bout of insecurity.

The Ibrox skipper quickly identified the Euro 2016-winning defender, who has lifted titles in Russia, Turkey and Portugal, as a clear and present danger to his captaincy.

Despite Pedro Caixinha admitting he could have picked any one of Alves, Kenny Miller, Niko Kranjcar, Graham Dorrans and Wallace as his skipper, the Rangers boss delivered a vote of confidence in his left-back by retaining him as the figurehead.

But the fear that now drives Wallace on ahead of the new season is of going down in history as an Ibrox skipper who never lifted any major silverware.

‘When Bruno arrived, did I worry about the captaincy? Absolutely,’ said Wallace, who has hoisted the Championship trophy and the Petrofac Cup during his tenure as Rangers captain.

‘It was the same last season when the manager brought in guys with the tag of having a more successful career than me.

‘Guys who had played at a higher level than me and had more international caps than me. And it has happened again this year.

‘But there has not really been any reassurance because the manager has not needed to say much about it.

‘Bruno will join the group of captains we have already got.

‘Myself, Kenny Miller (right), Bruno, Niko and Graham are all captains. They are the five players the manager recognised early on as his captains on the park. And it’s great for me that I can lean on any of them.

‘But I will happily still have the main responsibility. I will still be the one that has to face up to any disappointment or scrutiny.

‘I am still a young captain as I have only been two years in the role and I am at an enormously big club. I am driven on by the fact I do not want to go down in history as a Rangers captain that does not win any major silverware.

‘I recognise that challenge and I want to become a captain at Rangers that does lift silverware.

‘I will keep working hard and learning in the role to make sure that is the case.’

Last season, Rangers finished a record 39 points adrift of invincible, Treble-winning Celtic.

The future looked even more bleak when they were knocked out of the Europa League by Progres Niederkorn, the fourth-best side in Luxembourg.

But Wallace believes Caixinha’s summer signing splurge of nine players, including Alves, leaves Rangers better equipped to win silverware and close the gap on their city foes.

‘Is winning a trophy a realistic target? It has to be the mindset at this club,’ the 30-year-old said.

‘That has to be the aim. It cannot be anything other than that. We want to win every game and every tournament we enter.

‘Can we bridge the gap in the league? We have to feel that way!

‘If we didn’t feel we could do it, there’s no point turning up to training every day.

‘We need to close that gap and it’s about the players who have arrived from all different places settling quickly and adapting to the demands at Rangers.’

Caixinha has signed Mexicans Eduardo Herrera and Carlos Pena, a Colombian in Alfredo Morelos and Portuguese players Alves, Dalcio, Daniel Candeias and Fabio Cardoso. The Ibrox squad looked a disparate bunch, sitting around in individual groups at the airport in Luxembourg after losing to Progres Niederkorn.

But Wallace insists there is definitely unity at Ibrox ahead of the Premiership kicking off on Sunday at Motherwell. ‘Naturally, if guys know each other or are from the same country, they’ll sit together at the same table and have coffee,’ said Wallace.

‘I still sit with Kenny Miller, Graham Dorrans and Jason Holt, but that does not mean that there is a division. That is just life.

‘And in the last three games, I have seen a real togetherness in the squad.

‘We don’t have any one great individual player that will win us a game at this stage, but our most powerful weapon is our togetherness as a team.

‘In Mark Warburton’s first season here, we gelled a lot sooner as a squad. Last season, maybe not as quickly.

‘Also, the new guys are learning their English too, so away from the pitch, they are doing their best.

‘They are still getting used to Rangers and the city. It might take a bit more time, but we are encouraged by how we have been playing in our last three games.’

After the Niederkorn nadir, Rangers have looked more solid in a draw with Marseille at Ibrox and wins at Watford and Sheffield Wednesday in hastily-arranged friendlies.

‘We have a long way to go to get to where we feel we should be, but we hope we are going to start the season strongly,’ said Wallace.

‘We’ve spoken about trying to gain momentum in pre-season. Obviously, we failed on that front in Europe.

‘We don’t want to go into that too much, but we did rightly suffer humiliation for it.

‘But we have to overcome that. We have to be brave enough to face up to it, which we have.

‘We are definitely feeling a lot better about ourselves now and we are hugely motivated for the start of the league season on Sunday.

‘The start of the league can’t come quickly enough in the mood we are in just now.

‘I feel the positivity and it’s up to us players to make sure we start off the league campaign well.

‘This season, we need to make sure we start with a win.’

25 Rangers skipper Lee Wallace has netted this many goals in 242 appearances for the Ibrox club since joining from Hearts in 2011