“Very, very big club” – is hitman on the verge of Rangers switch?

The Lawrence Shankland rumours are continuing unabated, with Ayr manager Ian McCall’s deliberately mischievous teasing comments about the offers the lad has now as a free agent, having seen his time in the Championship end successfully.

As we know, the prolific hitman is absolutely the best striker outwith the SPL, and is considerably better than many in it, and has the choice of many options now with which to make his next big move.

But McCall’s tease has only set the tongues wagging over whether or not one of those offers was from Rangers.

He said:

“There may be the option of a very, very big club, but would he play there every week, to take that next step and kick on again? One of them, it’s a club in Scotland and you need to be really mentally strong. That’s something I think Lawrence has, but the only way you find that is if you go through it. You can’t predict that, it’s something you have to live through to find out if you have it.”

The 23-year old is highly sought-after, and is a truly lucrative free agent having had the season of his career at just the right time to secure a mammoth move. He is in a position of real negotiating power and has all the cards at his disposal, and frankly we think that’s a good thing. He’s earned the right to take his time and go for the best option for himself.

As for McCall’s comments; as a former Rangers player himself, the most telling part of his testimony was ‘the only way you find that is if you go through it’. Because, McCall did go through it and did so with a reasonable level of distinction even if his time at Ibrox wasn’t the most memorable historically. A healthy number of appearances in two seasons in Govan was McCall’s lot, and he managed to just about handle the pressure.

Whether Shankland would go on to supersede his former manager only time will tell, but we can safely say the rising star of Scottish football is one we would very much like at Ibrox.