'Hearts & Hibs won’t want to hear it' - Rangers tipped to consider move for Kevin Nisbet or Lawrence Shankland

Lawrence Shankland and Kevin Nisbet will be on Michael Beale’s radar this January window, reckons Rangers legend Barry Ferguson.

The Hearts and Hibs strikers have been in red-hot form for their respective clubs. Only Celtic star Kyogo Furuhashi has scored more league goals than Shankland, while NIsbet has returned from a nine-month injury lay off to score seven goals in six appearances, including a strike at Ibrox and a hat-trick against Motherwell.

Rangers boss Beale admitted recently that he is keen to add more goals to his squad with different issues, including injuries to Antonio Colak and Kemar Roof and with Alfredo Morelos in the final months of his contract. They have been strongly linked with a move for Swansea City forward Morgan Whittaker and are reportedly weighing up a third bid for the 22-year-old.

In his column for the Daily Record, Ferguson wrote that he wouldn't be surprised if Beale is also “taking a very close look at Lawrence Shankland and Kevin Nisbet and considering making a move for one or both of them in the coming days”.

“I realise the fans of Hearts and Hibs won’t want to hear it and please believe me when I say I’m not being disrespectful to their clubs,” he said. “But I honestly can’t imagine any reason why Beale wouldn’t be looking at the pair of them when they are performing to such high levels on his own doorstep. Rangers have made a habit of buying good Scottish strikers down the years. Guys like Billy Dodds, Kenny Miller, Kris Boyd and Steven Naismith are proof that you don’t need to trawl the world or spend tens of millions to find reliable, prolific goal scorers. I look at Shankland and Nisbet and I see two young guys who would both be more than capable of making the same step up.

He added: “With Alfredo Morelos coming to the end of his contract and Kemar Roofe back on the treatment table for who knows how long, if the names of Shankland and Nisbet are not somewhere on Beale’s desk this winter then the new manager will be guilty of missing a trick. And, given how smart he’s been so far, I find that highly unlikely.”