Rangers fans are in meltdown today amid an apparent twist in the club’s reported pursuit of Lawrence Shankland, after the Hearts captain was left out of the squad for their cup match, with manager Steven Naismith completely evading questions on his future.

While the Gorgie head coach did claim Shankland is ill and was left out on health grounds, nevertheless his evasion of the question of the boy’s future was very telling and it comes on the back of the new contract being offered.

It is widely understand that Shankland has turned their offer down, and is expecting a much greater pay raise than the modest sum Hearts have put in his direction.

Ibrox Noise further understands he and Naismith are amicable with his desire to move to Rangers, the manager accepting why and having no massive issue with it, but Rangers need to put the offer in.

And with Shankland seemingly rejecting the initial Hearts offer to him, it’s a sure sign that the only way they’re keeping him long term is with a pay raise in keeping with his stock.

This situation is clearly going to run till the end of the transfer window unless Rangers can just put up the cash Hearts clearly demand.

Unfortunately, as we know, the club just can’t easily fork out £6M on Shankland, and there’s also those reports of board splits over the topic which make a bid on him a bit harder to justify.

End of the day, this is quite the saga, and there have been some claims made that Rangers have also made overtures in the direction of Kevin Denkey, with spectacular allegations Rangers put an £8M bid in for the Brugge striker.

We can’t verify that, but if they’re true, money is there.

But Shankland seems more believable for now. It’s just a question of putting together a lot of conditions.