Just supposing, just supposing, for even one moment that HITC’s exclusive on Lawrence Shankland is accurate, and that Celtic are making a move for the Hearts striker…

Rangers would have no one to blame but themselves on this one, because this transfer saga has been going on forever, and the club could easily have signed the forward literally years ago.

But of course, a move for the Scotland striker doesn’t even seem to be on the Rangers cards – it’s been confirmed by several ITK club sources that neither Philippe Clement nor Nils Koppen have any current interest in making a play for the ex-Ayr man, and given we’re now almost into the last month of yet another window in which there’s been no move for him, this appears accurate.

The Record made the claim today that Rangers are discussing internally about a £3M move for the hitman, despite the fact he’s in the final year of his deal. The reality is Hearts couldn’t command more than £1.5M plus an addon or two.

But the Record have made these exact same claims before and there’s really no basis to them.

So if Celtic do make a move for Shankland, we won’t blame the striker for accepting the deal – Rangers just haven’t done enough.

Shankland is one of us, and the last thing he wants is to join Celtic, but if Rangers refuse the move for him, and Celtic make a clear and acceptable bid for his services, what choice is he left with unless some other credible mob from down south or overseas makes a play?

And at the moment, the latter isn’t happening.

Shankland wants a big pay rise in line with his abilities, and this is his big chance to make a big move – Ibrox Noise for one will not resent him if he makes the move to Celtic.

It’ll break his heart, but as Scott McKenna, a Celtic fan himself put it in his Aberdeen days, he doesn’t care for Celtic now, he’s got a job to do and that’s all about Aberdeen.

Shankland, professionally, will be the same.

And don’t think this is about Celtic just hijacking a Rangers target – we simply haven’t done enough or tried hard enough to get Shankland – we’ve completely left the door open for that lot to nab him.

If we’d bid, done something, we’d have been right in there to sign him, but as it is, it now farcically looks like Celtic might actually be in for him.

How preposterous.