HE may be undergoing his pre-season in Moscow rather than Milngavie right now but Vitor Pereira has predicted that it won’t be long before Bruno Alves becomes Rangers’ main man.

Pereira, linked with the manager’s job at Ibrox - with Pedro Caixinha as part of his proposed backroom team - prior to the appointment of Mark Warburton back in 2015, has been as interested a spectator as anyone this pre-season as Caixinha has largely populated the Rangers squad with the kind of Portuguese and Latin types we don’t see too frequently in the harum scarum environs of the Scottish game.

Alves, who agreed a two-year deal at the club after leaving Serie A side Cagliari, is cutting it fine to be able to play any part in the Ibrox side’s opening Europa League tie against Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg - should Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. reach the Confederations Cup final it falls on the Sunday between the two legs - but he has allayed fears over his fitness heading into the new campaign.

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The defender was an unused substitute as Fernando Santos' side were held to a 2-2 draw with Mexico in Kazan on Sunday and the Euro 2016 winners will play their second Group A fixture when they face hosts Russia this evening. It isn't an ideal scenario for the Gers but Pereira, the coach of 1860 Munich in Germany, has backed Alves to hit the ground running and swiftly become the spiritual heart of this side.

The two men spent a season together at Turkish outfit Fenerbahce, with Pereira confident enough in the veteran’s conditioning and consistency to hand him no fewer than 41 appearances, including a couple of Europa League encounters against Celtic. Rangers, of course, thought they had added some veteran leadership to the group 12 months previously, but their recruitment of Joey Barton didn’t exactly pan out as planned.

“Bruno Alves was my player at Fenerbahce and he is a top, top player,” Pereira said last night. “He is a very good professional, and I already know he will be one of the best players in the Rangers team for sure - and in the Scottish league. I am convinced about this. He is in really good shape, and he is such a good professional that I feel that he can play even more than two or three years no problem.”

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While some veteran players start to miss games here and there with a series of niggling injuries, Alves - a bit like Kenny Miller - has that happy knack where he always seems to be playing. Another 30-plus appearances came along at Cagliari last season and Pereira feels the Euro 2016 winner, with 90 caps and league titles in three different countries to his name already, is the perfect character to lend his experience to some of the younger players in the Rangers dressing room. While young Ross McCrorie, David Bates and Aidan Wilson could all have a part to play, not least of these is Fabio Cardoso, the 23-year-old central defender, plucked from Vitoria Setubal, who he is expected to partner in central defence.

“When he was with me at Fenerbahce, he played almost the whole season without missing a game, and it was the same for the team he was playing for in Italy last season,” said Pereira. “He has the conditioning and the experience to be a great player for the team in his own right but he can also help the players out and help the coach out in terms of leadership. He will be a very good leader for the team and someone who can help out the young players, because he always speaks to everybody.”

If Alves is the most recognisable in quite a cast list of Portuguese players at Ibrox, Pereira also feels that Rangers fans will learn to appreciate what winger Daniel Candeias has to offer. The 29-year-old has spells at both Porto and Benfica on his resume, even if he made just a handful of appearances for either first team combined. Nonetheless, Pereira - who worked with him during a spell at Porto early in his career - feels he has pace to burn and an eye for goal.

“I know Candeias,” said Pereira. “He is a fast player, and the kind of player who can score some goals. He is strong one against one and a clever player, so I think he will be able to help the team too.”