The long-running contract impasse between Hearts and Lawrence Shankland appears to be nearing a successful conclusion, with the talismanic captain close to re-signing with the Tynecastle club.
The 29-year-old – who has scored 68 goals since arriving from Belgian club Beerschot three years ago – looked to be leaving after several rounds of negotiations over the past 18 months failed to result in an agreement, with the Scotland forward happy to become a free agent this summer and explore his options.
Derek McInnes has held regular conversations with Shankland since taking charge in mid-May aimed at convincing him to accept an offer to become Hearts’ highest-paid player.
The manager appeared to be giving up hope, though, when he spoke from the club’s warm-weather training base in Spain on Tuesday.
“The fact he’s not with us would suggest that it’s been challenging to get the outcome that we want,” McInnes said of the fact the striker had not been signed in time to fly out with the rest of the squad last Saturday.
However, the situation has changed significantly since then, with the Jambos seemingly having won the battle to keep hold of the striker and bring to an end one of the most prominent narratives of the past two years in Scottish football.
It was reported on Wednesday that Shankland was “rejecting big money from abroad to stay at Hearts”.
Although the club were remaining coy on such suggestions, it is understood that talks have progressed and that a deal is now significantly closer to being finalised than it was on Tuesday.
Shankland marked his first campaign at the club by becoming the first Hearts player in 31 years to score more than 20 goals in a season and then netted 31 goals in 2023-24 to earn himself every Scottish Premiership Player of the Year award available and secure a place in the Scotland squad for Euro 2024.
The former Ayr and Dundee United forward’s most recent campaign was more of a struggle in front of goal and he incurred the wrath of some fans after a costly Conference League penalty miss away to Cercle Brugge in November, although he did notch five times in his final five appearances to leave supporters clinging to the hope that he might decide to remain at Tynecastle.
Barring any last-minute hitches, it now looks like Shankland will pledge his future to the club and join up with McInnes and his new team-mates in the coming days as they step up preparations for their Premier Sports Cup opener at home to Dunfermline in just over a fortnight.
The retention of their most prolific forward of the 21st century would represent a significant coup at a time when Hearts are embarking on an exciting new era in partnership with Jamestown Analytics and with Brighton owner Tony Bloom on board as a minority investor.
