We left this alone because yesterday it was just one man’s opinion, but with ex-Rangers favourite and cult hero (maybe ‘legend’ is a bit strong) Andy Halliday saying he was 90% sure Lawrence Shankland wouldn’t be joining Rangers this window, we must admit today’s news appears to confirm it.

With the announcement from Rangers Review that the Ibrox side will invest £6M in new signing Mohamed Diomande, not only does it appear to blow out of the water the notion Rangers had little-to-no money in January, but it also hints that bartering over Lawrence Shankland wasn’t even a thing.

Supposedly, Mark Benstead of Sky Sports News (we still can’t verify this quote) claimed Rangers’ board was split over Shankland, and a bid couldn’t be agreed on. That quote/story was carried by only Ibrox News and no one else. We still don’t know if it was accurate.

Hearts are said to want upwards of £3M for their captain, a player they really don’t want to lose given he’s critical to their pursuit of a European place. They want Europa League and not Conference League, which the third-placed side will get, and Shankland is massive to that.

But tellingly, the big claim was Rangers haggling over the price… and the fact we couldn’t afford Shankland at £6M, with even £3M+ being a stretch.

But it’s clear Rangers could happily afford the lad, with this investment showing the club has a lot more financial muscle than we realised.

It just seems that Philippe Clement doesn’t want the lad enough.

Does the final decision actually rest with the manager? No, really it doesn’t. The whole scouting team and management team makes the decision together, this is how Clement works.

He takes the players the club gives him, while offering his own thoughts as well on targets to pursue.

And in this case, it does seem like Shankland just isn’t coming.

In truth, Hearts really don’t want to sell him this window. They don’t want to sell him any window, but this one is critical for their European aspirations.

Rangers do desperately need a new striker though, but we are seeing so little information about such a pursuit, aside the tabloid repetitions of Shankland’s name.

So at this point, all bets are off.

But it does seem like ex-Hearts man Halliday was right.