LAWRENCE SHANKLAND insists he’s fully focused on scoring goals for Hearts.
However, one of his former coaches at Tynecastle reckons his head COULD be turned by Rangers – and all they need to do is submit a formal offer for the striker.
Shankland, 28, set transfer tongues wagging at the start of the week when he liked a social media post of the Ibrox side winning the Viaplay Cup.
He subsequently said the speculation only goes to show he’s doing his job for Hearts and that the rumours don’t bother him.
But ex-Jambos coach Lee McCulloch, a man who knows what it feels like to have an offer from Gers on the table himself, believes the Scotland star and his current club could be put in an awkward position if money is put on the table.
McCulloch told PLZ Soccer: “I think the situation is, Hearts are pretty cash rich, there’s a lot of money in the board room. So, they won’t sell him short, but it will all come down to Lawrence Shankland as well.
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“That’s why I think if another team, let’s say, puts an offer in and Lawrence head is turned, it might put them in a difficult situation.”
Transfer talk linking Shankland to the Ibrox has been persistent for much of the last 12 months and only intensified this season given the problems the Light Blues have had in the striking department.
Danilo showed promise but has suffered two bad injury setbacks, Sam Lammers and Cyriel Dessers have failed to convince and Kemar Roofe remains a fitness enigma.
Abdallah Sima, a winger by trade, is Gers’ top scorer.
Fans claimed to have spotted a ‘special hug’ between Shankland and Rangers boss Philippe Clement when the two sides met at Tynecastle a few weeks back.
Asked about the encounter, and any interest from the club in the striker, Clement said: “That’s a good question. You guys have written a lot about that already. I’m never going to speak about players that we’re interested or not interested in.
“I hear that some people really watch me a lot, I knew it already in the city, so it’s a little bit special in that way. So I need to think really good in the future what I do every second of the day.
“But no, I greeted all the players of Hearts that I met along the way. Was nothing really special there.”
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