Lawrence Shankland Hearts future latest as CEO provides update and hits back at 'incredible' board criticism

Hearts' Lawrence Shankland | SNS Group

Hearts CEO Andrew McKinlay has provided a detailed update on the future status of star striker Lawrence Shankland.

The forward has endured a tough start to the season and is yet to find a way to goal in his eight games, with just one assist. In total though, he’s netted 59 times with 13 assists in 102 matches for the club, and talk of a transfer exit in the summer was rife with a year left on his deal.

A time of change is now on the horizon at Hearts after Steven Naismith’s sacking as head coach following a 2-1 loss against St Mirren which keeps them bottom of the Premiership, having lost eight games in succession. McKinlay says there isn’t currently a live offer for Shankland after an initial rejection, and he still holds hope of keeping him beyond the summer of 2025.

The chief executive told Sky Sports: “The last offer we made was rejected so there is no offer that sits out there at the moment. Obviously if his advisers or if he wanted to speak to us, we’d have a conversation.

“There is nothing at the moment and I think it has been widely documented that we didn’t receieve any offers, which surprised me given Lawrence’s performances last season but it certainly didn’t disappoint me. I am delighted to keep Lawrence for this year, I hope for longer, but as it stands for the moment it is for this year. I don’t see there being a decision to make in January as we sit here now.

“It looks like Lawrence will see out the last year of his contract but I would be delighted to have a conversation if there is one to be had to see if there is a way we can persuade him to stay here longer. Lawrence had a slow start to last season and then came good.

“I am sure Lawrence will come good. You don’t lose overnight what he has had for the last two seasons. He’s been phenomenal for this club over the last two seasons and I hope that returns on Saturday (vs Ross County).”

There has been board criticism that another forward wasn’t brought in to back the striker up during the transfer window. McKinlay added that it isn’t the board who will be commanding the manager to make or not make signings.

He added: “Another thing that’s been talked about is that it’s on the board that we didn’t sign other strikers. I find that an incredible thing for anyone to say because if the opposite was true and the board was telling the manager who he should be signing, we would be rightly vilified.

“We will never tell a manager who they should sign. What we do is we give the manager, his team and the recruitment guys a budget to work with. It is entirely for them who they want to sign. So I think that’s one to put the record straight that the board don’t decide which positions or who you sign. That is the very much for the management team and we have a balanced squad, we have a lot of good players in a lot of positions, we just need those players to perform.”