Hearts urged to make 'top class' Rangers star part of Lawrence Shankland transfer deal

Michael Stewart has suggested Hearts look at a Rangers star as they prepare for life without Lawrence Shankland.

The 30-year-old has scored 88 goals in 171 appearances in maroon over the last four seasons but looks set to depart for Premiership rivals and the team he supported as a boy. It’s a painful moment for Hearts fans to lose the club’s top striker just over a week removed from a final day loss to eventual champions Celtic snatching title glory out of their grasp.

Rangers already have Youssef Chermiti and Ryan Naderi to call upon up front but former Hearts midfielder Stewart reckons another Ibrox marksman in Bojan Miovski could be one way the Jambos look to replace Shankland. A goal-laden spell at Aberdeen clinched a move to then-La Liga side Girona before joining Rangers last summer, where he has struggled for consistency, but still scored 13 goals. It adds to 44 netted at Aberdeen and Stewart reckons he’d be a good makeweight.

Who could Hearts replace Lawrence Shankland with?

He told the Premier Sports Social club: “Maybe Miovski on loan, part of the deal. I think it would be silly not to look at something like that. Miovski is a top-class finisher. If you had a chance to get him, Hearts are an incredibly attractive proposition, when you look at what’s happened, in the Champions League qualifiers. You never know.”

Stewart added on Shankland’s move: “Clearly it's a sore one for Hearts to take. I'll make no apologies about this, but I've said it many times already, that Hearts should be standing with the league title in their hands right now. Would that have impacted on Lawrence Shankland’s decision?

“He's a Rangers fan. I would assume that he would be getting a bigger wage, although he's on a good wage at Hearts, a very good wage. I just mean in terms of if he'd won the league, the bonuses that they could have perhaps tried to sort of make the difference up with type thing. I don't know. I really don't know.

Why have Rangers moved for Lawrence Shankland?

“He's about to turn 31 in the summer. It's a very, very good question. The only person that can answer that is Lawrence Shankland himself. It's an impossible one to say definitively but put this way, if they had won the league, then it would have perhaps made it a bit more of a difficult decision. I'm sure it would be a difficult decision anyway but it would have made it an even more difficult decision for him to make.

Former Rangers defender Alan Hutton was on the panel and reckons he could be the next Ibrox captain ahead of an extensive rebuild under head coach Danny Rohl. He added: “It kind of came out of the blue for me when I read about it. I had to double check it because I was thinking, surely this isn't right, but extremely happy with the news.

“Just waiting to hear it finalised and everything. They should have got him last season and he went on to have a really good season. He's a leader within that squad. He's a Scottish guy as well that I think Rangers need more of. You're talking about who's going to be the next captain. That could be your next one in waiting.”

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