Rangers have finally confirmed the world’s worst kept secret, the signing of Lawrence Shankland.
We will have further coverage of this not-before-time signature on our platforms, but our sources have told us just what Shanks did to secure his move. Oh how Lawrence Shankland schemed.
We’ve discussed before how Lawrence played the long game, but the smarts from the lad have to be admired.
Scoop
As we know, he was out of contract in summer 2025. Rangers decided to lowball bid on his services that January, a still healthy £1.5M. Hearts rejected this out of greed, and demanding well over £3M. Clement was a big admirer of Shankland. He was fired two months later.
In Hearts’ defence, Rangers did something similar with Joe Aribo and Southampton, demanding £10M for a player who barely had any time left on his deal. Southampton paid up and Rangers got a superb profit on a player whose contract was expiring.
So, Shankland was out of contract that summer.
But Rangers did NOT follow up their interest under Russell Martin and Shankland had to play the waiting game.
He was out of contract and Hearts desperately wanted to keep him. But Shankland wanted to leave, but only for Rangers.
He held all the cards.
He had full respect for Hearts, and appreciated everything they’d done for him, but if Rangers came up again, he was gone.
And that’s how he engineered the three-year deal.
Shankland had a lowball price clause included, that at any point if they made overtures towards signing him, the former Dundee Utd striker could exercise that clause and leave.
Hearts would accept a modest fee for him, only around 6-figures. Shankland made sure Rangers figures knew about this. Hearts got to keep him for the foreseeable future, and he would commit.
Shanks put everything into that title push for Hearts. He captained them, scored, assisted, and nearly won that title for the Gorgie men. He also made Rangers have no choice given how poor our counterparts in his position were.
Waiting game
When it came to summer time, and the end of the season, Rangers made their move, Shankland’s release clause was activated, and Rangers got him for a modest price despite the three-year deal.
It was canny planning from Shankland, which involved a little bit of a long play and a speck of luck.
And now he has his dream move. Shankland planned ahead, showed his professionalism, and got not only a sniff of the title with Hearts, but now, his lifelong ambition of playing for Rangers. How Lawrence Shankland schemed for this.
Well played son.