RICHARD GOUGH believes Mark Warburton, the new Rangers manager, should give careful consideration to the leadership qualities of his prospective signings because of clear questions over Lee Wallace's ability to make the step up from vice-captain to permanent skipper.

Gough insists there is much to admire in Wallace, the Ibrox club's established left-back, but is yet to be convinced that he has the attributes required to drive the team through what is sure to be another highly-pressurised campaign in the SPFL Championship.

He would also prefer to see a central defender handed the armband following the departure of Lee McCulloch at the end of last season with former Hearts captain Danny Wilson the preferred choice to be paired up with Rob Kiernan, a £200,000 arrival from Wigan Athletic, at the heart of the rearguard.

"You do need a good captain, especially at a big club where you are under scrutiny," stated Gough, the on-field figurehead as Rangers steamrollered their way to Nine A Row in 1997. "I think Mark Warburton will be looking at that pretty carefully because it's an important role.

"Lee Wallace was captain at times last season and is a really good player. I'm not sure, though, whether he is one of those players who might just be better looking after his own game rather than everyone else's.

"I always like my captain being a central defender, but we'll what happens.

"Danny Wilson did it for Hearts last season and has been captain at a young age. I was a young captain at Tottenham and it taught me about how look after other people's games.

"I'm not sure anything will be set in stone yet. I certainly wouldn't bother me if Lee Wallace was captain, but we'll see what decision is made."

Gough is heartened to see Warburton making early progress on reconstructing a defence which will have to be considerably more resilient than last term should ambitions to win promotion to the top flight at the second time of asking be fulfilled.

"Getting the foundations set with your goalkeeper and your back four is what I would do as a manager," he said.

"Everything else gets built on that. If the reports are right and Mark is close to a couple of centre-backs, that's a promising sign.

"He'll have a good idea of what's available down south and will likely go for some he's worked with before.

"Let's just hope they are good enough to play in front of a full Ibrox.

"Ibrox was the best place I played in my career, but it was also the hardest place because you had to win every game. There are only a few clubs where those demands exist."

Gough speaks with the air of a man quietly confident about the future at his former club. It is a far cry from 12 months ago, when he encouraged supporters to boycott season tickets in a bid to oust the old board and install Dave King in a position of power.

He has now called on those same supporters to buy the 45,000 season books the South Africa-based businessman has based his future battleplans as chairman around.

Gough has been a strong ally for King over the past year or two, but he admits there were times when he doubted whether the previous regime would ever be jettisoned from Ibrox.

"Things had come to a bit of a standstill last year and Dave asked me to help in terms of supporters not buying season tickets," recalled Gough. "I thought that was difficult. No matter who is in charge, the Rangers fans had always bought season tickets books to support their team and wouldn't want to give them up.

"I said to Dave that there were people who had been sitting in the same seats for years and they might not get them back. He replied: 'Listen Richard, we are not going to get them out unless we do this'.

"I thought about it and agreed to stand alongside him. It was a difficult thing done for the right reasons.

"It caused a lot of anguish between supporters and that was understandable, but thousands and thousands didn't buy season tickets and I think that was a major thing in forcing change.

"I am glad I gave my backing to Dave. Months down the line, nothing had happened and I was beginning to wonder a bit, but it has worked out.

"We have proper Rangers people in position now and Dave has come out and asked the supporters to buy season tickets. I would back that as well.

"The club has been kicked and knocked about for three years, but, now, supporters can see there is a plan.

"It's not going to go down the road again of millions and millions going out of the club. Fans know that if they hand over their season ticket money, it is going to be used on players and Rangers need a good number of players in."