Jake Wright is Oxford United’s new club captain.

Manager Chris Wilder has revealed that the former Brighton centre back will get the armband from striker James Constable for the 2011-12 campaign.

Constable, known as Beano, took over as skipper halfway through United’s promotion season in 2009 when Adam Murray was injured.

He proved inspirational as the U’s regained their Football League status, and was named captain on a full-time basis last summer.

But Wilder feels that the position of a team’s leader is better suited to a defender than striker and has decided that Wright is the man to lead the U’s.

“Beano has done fantastic for us as a captain,” Wilder said. “He has really led by example.

“But I just feel that from an organisational point of view, it’s more suited to somebody defensively.

“We maybe need to organise people from a better area of the pitch, which is something that, at times, might have let us down last year.

“I am confident that Jake will take the responsibility of pushing and pulling people about from centre half.”

While the decision to have a forward as captain is often not ideal, no-one can doubt Constable’s leadership qualities on the pitch.

And as someone who likes to make his opinions known to referees, being captain dramatically reduced the number of yellow cards he picked up last season on the basis he was legitimately allowed to ‘talk’ to officials.

Constable was booked just six times and sent off once in 46 appearances.

That is in contrast to 12 months earlier when he picked up 11 yellow cards in 42 games – only three coming when skipper for the second half of the season.

But Wilder says that he does not expect Wright to be the only leader in the team, and doesn’t expect the decision to alter the way that Constable plays.

“I’m expecting all my players to take responsibilty,” he said.

“Beano will still do what he does and if we need him to take on the armband at any point, we know he will do a great job.

“I have spoken to him and he is OK with it – he wants what is best for the football club.”

United start their pre-season campaign at Didcot Town on July 9.