Hearts ‘can’t force’ Lawrence Shankland stay amid Rangers links as deals snubbed
Lawrence Shankland has rejected any Hearts contract offers put in front of him and the club’s chief executive has admitted he can’t be forced to stay following transfer links to Rangers.
Andrew McKinlay said at the launch of the club’s new hotel, via the Scottish Sun (5 February), that the deadline given to the 28-year-old to put pen to paper has passed and nothing is now under discussion, as he suspects all sides are “drawing a line under this”.
The Jambos executive insists there was never any offer put forward during the January transfer window, with Ibrox links having been ongoing for some weeks, and that it would have taken a domestic Scottish record bid of more than £4.5million for the striker to leave.
McKinlay said: “Any contract we’ve put on the table we’ve been told wouldn’t be acceptable to the player, so that’s where they sit. The deadline has gone, so there is nothing on the table at the moment.
“Does that mean there won’t be ongoing chats? I’m sure there will be but who knows? We’re pleased we have got through this period. We made what we thought were really good offers.
“You can’t force someone to stay. Players have the power to run down their contract if they want. Right now, I suspect we are all drawing a line under this.”
McKinlay said there were no bids, and on asking price added: “There were some numbers. And those numbers, without going into detail, were predicated on what happens if we sell Lawrence, and don’t get group-stage football in Europe.
“We know exactly what that’s worth, so it had to be in that ballpark and upwards for it to make any sense.That’s not to say we wouldn’t get third place without Lawrence — but it certainly would have been a massive risk.
“People forget that the Scottish transfer record sits at £4.5million between Scottish clubs, and that was Scott Brown a good few years ago now. It would have to be in excess of something like that.
“Were we expecting the Scottish transfer record to be broken? I don’t think so. There was never any real hint that it was going to be.”
Rangers had to break record to sign Shankland in January
There’s only really two reasons why a player would reject multiple offers of a new contract at their current club, even if they are currently happy enough to be there as Shankland appears to be.
Either they don’t like the terms or they have an eye on leaving, so unless Hearts put even more money on the table that looks to be how the situation will stay for the time being.
From a Rangers point of view there is some logic to the idea that a player who looks to be exactly what the team needs and has supported them all his life might be holding out hope that a last big move is available to him in the summer.
With 12 months left at that stage Hearts would struggle to demand a record fee, unless they are hell-bent on keeping him for that final year otherwise, regardless of whether he ends up leaving for nothing at the end of it.
That may just be wishful thinking in Glasgow, and clearly the club didn’t think he was worth anything like that money through January since Philippe Clement is content to move ahead with Fabio Silva as the alternative to Cyriel Dessers.
Such money did prove to be available but has been spent on bringing in Mohamed Diomande from FC Nordsjaelland instead.
The squad has three forwards currently on loan in one direction or the other (Sam Lammers, Abdallah Sima and Silva), with another’s contract expiring (Kemar Roofe), so there is going to be movement of some sort at the end of the season, and unless Shankland has accepted a subsequent Hearts deal by then he is bound to remain linked to Rangers for the next few months just as he has for the past few.
In other Rangers news, an Ibrox exit decision has been made with four clubs chasing a first-team player.
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