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Rangers would have to pay nearly £5m fee to sign Lawrence Shankland this January
Jonny McFarlane has suggested that it could take a bid of up to £5million for Rangers to sign Lawrence Shankland from Hearts this January.
The Light Blues are keen to add to their striking options given their early season struggles in front of goal, with new signings Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers struggling to consistently find the net since moving to Ibrox.
One name that has been repeatedly named as a potential solution has been Shankland and while McFarlane believes Rangers should make a move for the Scottish international, he thinks it could be a more expensive deal to complete in January.
Writing for The Herald (20 November) he said: “They would certainly not be willing sellers and any notion that Shankland might be secured for a couple of million is fanciful at best.
“Given Rangers splashed out £5m for Dessers in the summer, also 28 remember, it seems unlikely a deal could be struck if it’s not in that kind of ballpark. Even then, Hearts might just decide they’d rather keep a guaranteed scorer until the summer and reassess then.
“This can be a dangerous strategy though. Players tend not to take kindly to dream moves being scuppered. Shankland and his agent might strongly suggest to Hearts that if the club values him at such a high fee, they need to pay him accordingly.”
Big fee
Rangers spent a lot of money during the summer transfer window under the management of Michael Beale in an attempt to replace Alfredo Morelos and finally find another striker capable of scoring at least 20 goals a season in the Scottish Premiership.
While Danilo has shown plenty of signs that he could be that forward, both Dessers and Lammers have failed to find the net regularly and have by no means even begun to justify the amount of money paid for them this summer.
But if Rangers want Shankland, a move which McFarlane has repeatedly labelled a “no-brainer” they are going to have to once again shell out a big transfer fee and it seems unlikely that they will be keen to do so in January after an already expensive summer.
Signing one or two strikers for £5million a season is manageable, when that becomes three or for forwards instead it becomes a bit reckless. While Clement needs another, more consistent striker, Rangers could do worse than wait until the summer.
There is enough quality to see the Belgian through the remainder of the campaign and Shankland’s value will have lowered by the time the summer window opens as the Scottish international enters the final 12 months of his contract with Hearts.
In other Rangers news, Romanian media have reacted well to Ianis Hagi’s performance against Isreal