Lawrence Shankland Hearts future uncertain amid Rangers link as striker makes 'above my pay grade' admission

Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland says he is unable to confirm he will still being at the Gorgie club beyond the January transfer window, insisting that decisions about his future are well above his pay grade.

The striker, who netted twice against St Mirren at the weekend to make it 10 goals in 11 games as he heads into the second Edinburgh derby of the season, has been linked with several clubs, including Rangers, but he maintains his only concern is continuing his rampant form and helping Hearts to move away from the chasing pack in third.

“I’ve been through it before,” he sad. "Speculation is just a sign that you are doing well and you are doing your job properly. That’s how I look on it, to be honest.

“I’m enjoying my football at the minute, things are going well and I don’t need to concentrate on much more than that.”

Lawrence Shankland celebrates after giving Hearts a 2-0 lead over Hibs at Easter Road in January. Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group

This time last year he had registered 15 goals in 26 matches, this term he has banked 15 Hearts goals in 25 appearances, despite an eight-game drought from August to October. That leaves the 28-year-old well on course to emulate or even eclipse last season’s 28 goal return.

Offering such a consistently-prolific presence, Hearts have made it clear that any bid for their star man would have to be sizable for them to even consider it, and with every goal that number will only increase.

“Possibly,” said Shankland. “But, that’s way above my pay grade. I don’t deal with that. That’s for the club to deal with. I’ll just concentrate on keeping scoring goals and hopefully winning games.”

The weekend victory over St Mirren took the Gorgie club clear in third, with a game in hand over their two closest chasers, but manager Steven Naismith and Shankland’s team-mates have admitted that losing Shankland would be a blow to their season’s ambitions. But their captain is unable to offer assurances.

“Have you got a crystal ball I can look into? Listen, I’ve got a year and a half on my contract, I’m enjoying my football and I’m scoring goals. Speculation follows you when you’re doing well. I don’t see it as anything more than that and I won’t until the future. When you’re a goalscorer teams look at you like that but it’s a sign that I’m doing well and I take it as a compliment and keep trying to do my job well and score goals.

“I’ve come off the back of a season last year where I scored a lot of goals. I had a wee bit of an off patch after the European games. It was a wee bit of a dry spell but I always believed I’d be back scoring goals. But I’m glad to see them going back in.”

He opened the scoring with a header at the back post against Stephen Robinson’s Paisley side then followed it up with a touch of brilliance for the second that has seen it touted as goal of the season by some pundits. And, buoyed by his recent form, Shankland believes he will score every time he takes to the pitch at the moment.

“When you’re on good form you just want to be around the goal when the ball drops. When you go through a dry spell it’s usually a case of getting one then the rest seem to follow. At the time it feels like you’re making the wrong runs, then your luck changes. When you’re sniffing them out it’s good and it feels like it becomes easier.”

At the start of the year, he weighed in as Hearts ran out 3-0 winners at Easter Road – one of his four goals in six derby appearances – and, returning to Leith this evening, he is looking to find the target again as Hearts look to make amends for squandering a two-goal lead the last time the city rivals met in October.

“Those quick fire two [Hibs] goals killed us a bit. But that can happen in games. I think if you did that in any game you would want to make up for it in the next one. We were 2-0 up and reasonably comfortable and then they scored two quick goals.

“That’s just the fear of the derbies – or the magic of them from Hibs’ point of view, coming back from 2-0 down. I’ve said before you can’t really predict what’s going to happen in a derby. We will go there with our game plan and try and do what we want to do – win the game. It’s one we look forward to.”