Sport
‘There Was a Deal There’ – Journo shares how close Rangers came to Shankland transfer
Jonny McFarlane has admitted there was a “deal there to be done” to bring Lawrence Shankland to Rangers during the January transfer window.
The Light Blues were consistently linked with the Hearts striker throughout the January transfer window, but never made a concrete move to bring him to Ibrox this month, instead focusing on strengthening in other areas.
However, Herald journalist McFarlane has insisted that Rangers were able to sign the 28-year-old in January if they were willing to meet Hearts’ asking price and he thinks they could regret not bolstering their forward options.
Speaking on the Rangers Review YouTube channel (1 February, 23:00) he said: “For me, I still think they could have done with another striker, I think it’s the thing that everyone is talking about.
“I’ve been consistent on here in suggesting that Lawrence Shankland would have been the perfect fit for Rangers. I get it would have been difficult. I get Hearts would have wanted a fair bit of cash, but there was a deal there to be done if money was willing to be spent.”
Could regret it
Rangers are heading into the remainder of the Premiership with one recognised striker in Cyriel Dessers. Danilo, Kemar Roofe and Abdallah Sima are set for spells on the sidelines, while Fabio Silva has admitted he is not a conventional number nine.
Should Dessers pick up a knock, Philippe Clement’s options at Ibrox will be incredibly limited and he will more than likely be forced to play with a false nine rather than a traditional centre-forward.
Shankland would have offered the perfect solution to the Light Blues’ problem and would have likely provided the goals to fire the Gers to the Premiership title this season, as well as bolstering their options in the long term.
For whatever reason, Rangers decided not to pursue that deal during the January window and it will be interesting to see why Clement has not opted to add to his forward options.
