Lawrence Shankland admits Hearts legend status out of reach unless one thing clinched as transfer speculation embraced

Lawrence Shankland reckons he’ll need to get his hands on some silverware to be properly classed as a Hearts legend.

But Jambos will be delighted to hear trophy talk is the only thing on the mind of the red hot hitman. Shankland knows there is fevered talk about his future with big-money bids expected in January. But he is determined to ignore the frantic gossip and focus on keeping the foot down at Hearts.

Shankland’s boss Steven Naismith insisted the striker was heading for legend status at Tynecastle after his stunning stoppage-time winner against Hibs on Wednesday. But the frontman is not expecting a Gorgie suite named after him just yet. He said: “Nah, I wouldn’t say that! That status is for other people to speak about you that way. I’d never put that label on myself. I think you need to be winning trophies and stuff like that to pass that barrier.

“Hopefully that’s something I can do while I am here. Right now, things have been going well. Since I joined things have gone well. Obviously my goal-scoring has played a big part in that. Moments like that in the derby obviously help. I’ll enjoy that from Wednesday, it was special.

“I’ve always said when I deal with speculation I deal with the here and now. I just look at it like it’s a sign I’m doing well. There’s never speculation when you are not doing so well so it’s a good thing for me that people are talking about me in a positive manner.

“It shows I’m doing well at my club and that I’m scoring goals. That’s honestly as far as I look at it. If it comes about that’s when I’ll sit down and talk about it but until then I’ve got 18 months on my contract, I’m happy here, enjoying it, I’m scoring goals. That’s honestly as far as I’m looking at it.”

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