The name on so many Rangers’ fans lips today is, and has been for some time, that of Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland.

Following a dismal striking performance by former Nigeria international Cyriel Dessers, and yet another goal by Shankland, so many Rangers supporters’ clamour for the ex-Ayr man has reached titanic proportions.

New striker Fabio Silva is a completely unknown quantity at this point, and does not come with any kind assurances that he will thrive at Rangers, while Shankland’s SPL performances just keep on winning more Ibrox fans over.

The big issue some of the detractors (and there are some) point out is his supposed market value of around £5M.

They argue he’s a good goalscorer ‘but never worth £5M’.

The same fans, incidentally, who urged the club to invest the £6M in Danilo despite his having a far worse career tally than Shankland, and who also supported the £6M on Cyriel Dessers despite the same thing.

They defended spending that much on this ‘talent’ but reckon because he’s not got a foreign name Shankland isn’t worth that.

No, there’s a snobbery from some of our fans about Scottish players, about SPL players – a market, incidentally, the Great Walter (yes, that comparison again) used frequently and to top effect.

He signed Hibs players, Killie players, Hearts players – he had no qualms about dipping into the SPL market to strengthen Rangers.

But these days many of our fans don’t seem to tolerate that, and Rangers just don’t seem to bring in many if any players from the same league any more.

Yes, Shankland is every inch a £5M striker, if not much more, given £5M only gets you the likes of Dessers these days.

Whether Rangers will secure him next month we will see, but anyone who thinks Shankland isn’t good enough or isn’t worth £5M… probably desperately wanted Danilo and Dessers.