Rangers skipper Lee Wallace happy to have experience behind him

LEE WALLACE is happy to carry the full burden of being Rangers captain – but feels it bodes well for the team that Pedro Caixinha has other leaders to call on.

Manager Caixinha recently confirmed Wallace would continue as Ibrox skipper for a third season but noted that he now had four other players – Kenny Miller, Bruno Alves, Graham Dorrans and Niko Kranjcar – who could do the job and who would act as extensions of himself on the pitch.

Wallace said: “I’m not so sure it’s to help me or if I want any less pressure on me. If anything I want more pressure on me, I want more demand, more scrutiny, because I feel that helps you grow as a human and as a player.

“Fortunately enough for me, I have four older guys with better experience than me, better CVs, that I can lean on.

“That’s important for me and the rest of the team that we have the qualities within those five individuals that the manager has mentioned and it’s going to be great moving forward.

“We’ve a vast array of different qualities in ourselves and our characters and our play and experiences, and I think that’s going to help.”

Wallace admits he is very conscious of being one of the few Rangers captains never to win a major trophy.

Rangers finished 39 points behind Celtic last season but Wallace has insisted they must go into the new campaign aiming to win the league while being conscious of the gap.

Speaking at Hampden at the launch of the Ladbrokes Premiership season, which kicks off for Rangers at Motherwell on Sunday, the 29-year-old added: “I’m always learning. That’s two years in a row and I’m well aware of the fact that there is a unique situation that I’m maybe one of the only captains in this club’s history not to win a major honour.

“That’s part of my motivation to reach that, not just from a selfish point of view obviously but for the team I’m playing in. We aspire to achieve what has happened in the past at this football club and that’s the motivation every single day.”