McLeish appoints Klos as Gers captain

Rangers manager Alex McLeish has appointed goalkeeper Stefan Klos captain for the new campaign.

The 32-year-old German, who was signed from Borussia Dortmund in 1998, will lead out his team-mates next season having stepped into the shoes of outcast Craig Moore.

Moore has been stripped of the Ibrox captaincy after announcing he intends to play for Australia in the Olympics.

McLeish, meanwhile, admits that his job is on the line which is why he has reopened the door to contract rebel Fernando Ricksen after missing out on Giourkas Seitaridis.

McLeish had targeted the Greek Euro 2004 star to replace the controversial Dutchman, who had appeared to be on his way after rejecting the club’s new contract offer.

But Seitaridis left Panathinaikos for European champions Porto and now Ricksen is back in favour with McLeish, who is under real pressure to wrest power back from Celtic.

Ricksen is out of contract at the end of next season and that means McLeish faces losing the player for nothing next summer.

But the Rangers boss said: “Fernando Ricksen is the first-choice right-back. Losing him for nothing is not something that totally over concerns me.

“My job is on the line. I have got to look short-term here and try to get success as quickly as possible.

“It’s not a major concern if he leaves for nothing.

“In many ways it would be poor timing if we were to accept an offer for him now and then try to replace him.

“I could have done it earlier with some quality which is no longer available to us any more.

“We negotiated for Giourkas Seitaridis but it was dependent on Fernando leaving.”

McLeish hopes Ricksen will now reconsider his decision to leave Rangers, who are currently in Austria.

He added: “I don’t think you can rule anything out.

“Fernando might be playing the best stuff of his career and he may then want to stay, rethink things.

“We have had brief chats on how well he’s looked and how well he has started. Fernando is a very important player for us this season.

“He is one of the experienced guys now and we need him to set an example.”