UKIP, Lib Dem, Labour – political leaders fell one by one after yesterday’s surprising election results but at the Macron Stadium, the search has gone on a lot longer.

Since arriving at Wanderers in October, Neil Lennon has struggled to find one candidate to throw his support behind and thus the captain’s armband has been passed around like the proverbial hot potato.

Incumbent skipper Jay Spearing got his vote initially but lasted just four games before being dropped to the bench.

Matt Mills then picked up the armband and ran with it. For the first few months of Lennon’s reign it seemed he was exactly what the club was looking for.

A commanding presence, a goal threat, the former Leicester City defender was playing his best football for years.

And while he wasn’t alone in letting his form drop, or allowing fitness problems to get the better of him in the final few months of the campaign, the speed and timing of his decline could not have been worse.

That Lennon is pursuing the signature of Rotherham United captain Craig Morgan so vigorously does not spell good news for the 28-year-old defender, or the likes of Dorian Dervite and David Wheater around him.

Lennon claimed Mills had been offered a new deal at the same time as Darren Pratley and Adam Bogdan in April, yet some doubt has since been cast on whether that offer is still on the table at all.

Wanderers have spoken publicly of their desire to secure Adam Bogdan, while talks with Pratley continue to look encouraging but the silence in Mills’ case is deafening.

Whether or not the centre-half extends his career with the Whites or not, the issue of the captaincy remains up for debate.

Some joke that if the ball had been moved around with such frequency as the captain’s role this season, Wanderers wouldn’t have been in trouble at all.

Mills, Spearing, David Wheater, Barry Bannan, Neil Danns, Emile Heskey and Eidur Gudjohnsen have all started games as skipper since Lennon came in during October.

It is a far cry from the days when Kevin Davies or Kevin Nolan epitomised the Wanderers team of the time, with no doubt as to who was carrying out his manager’s instruction on the pitch.

“It shouldn’t really matter who is wearing an armband,” argued Gudjohnsen after filling the role against his former club Fulham in February.

“But there is something about it that I felt, even at my footballing age.”

Along with the procession of loan players, the lack of an established leader in the camp has contributed to the transitory feel of the Wanderers team in the last 12 months.

Lennon appears eager to lay a more solid foundation for next season and has picked out 29-year-old Morgan as a starting block.

One of the Millers’ key men in their survival effort in the last few months, the defender is based in the North West and freely admits his next contract is the biggest of his career.

“I am captain of the football club and I have always said if the offer in front of me is in keeping with the football club then I will happily sign it tomorrow,” he said.

“If it’s not and they want to go down a different road then I have to look at other opportunities because it is my last big contract that I am going to be able to earn so I have to look after my family.”