Rangers are said to be long term admirers of Lawrence Shankland as speculation surrounding the future of the Hearts skipper continues to circulate.
Gers boss Philippe Clement needs a natural goalscorer in his squad and is said to be an admirer of the former Ibrox season ticket holder but the Tynecastle outfit are reluctant to let their main man leave.
It will take a sizeable transfer fee, said to be over £3m at least, for Hearts to even entertain speaking to Rangers about Lawrence Shankland with news of a contract offer now being reported by The Edinburgh Evening News’ Barry Anderson.
Rangers-linked Lawrence Shankland gets new contract offer
The claim being made is that a deal has been offered that would make Shankland the capital side’s biggest earner for more than a decade.
Sounds ominous.
However, according to Salary Sport, Shankland is “only” currently on £3,000 per week.
To put it into perspective, on-loan Rangers Alex Lowry is currently Hearts top earning on double this amount.
For perspective, Rangers main three strikers; Danilo, Cyriel Dessers and Kemar Roofe are on an average of £26,000 per week.
There is no doubting that Rangers could make an offer that would blow Hearts out of the water, if a fee can be agreed.
With Roofe certain to leave the club in the summer, his £26,000 is going to be available for a start and you would like to think that Lawrence Shankland would bring Rangers infinitely more value for money.
The word from Hearts AGM was that Shankland was valued at £5m by the club.
This is all fair and well, but they now need to pay him accordingly.
As we’ve seen from Rangers wage bill, there is a going rate for players of this price range.
Hearts obviously need to be seen to be doing something to keep their best player and offering a new contract is pretty much all they can do right now.
Even if Shankland accepts though, it doesn’t really change anything from a Rangers perspective seeing as he is under contract until 2025 already.
Rangers need goals, and few are better in Scotland than Lawrence Shankland, that’s why they get paid, or offered, the big bucks.
