Lawrence Shankland shoots Rangers move talk down as Hearts star keen to sink them at Hampden amid Ibrox rumours

Hearts skipper Lawrence Shankland insists he’s focusing on sinking Rangers, not signing for them.

The 28-year-old has been tipped as the answer to the Ibrox side’s striking snags, with Record Sport columnist Tam McManus recently claiming Gers missed a trick by not moving for Shankland over the summer. New Rangers boss Philippe Clement has long been aware of the Jambos captain’s qualities having come across him when Shankland was starring for Belgian side Beerschot.

But the Hearts ace has shrugged off fresh links with the Ibrox outfit as he declared the only time he’s let Rangers cross his mind lately is while dreaming about dumping them in Sunday's Viaplay Cup semi-final shoot-out at Hampden. “Not at all,” he said when asked if he’d given any thought to the Gers rumours. “My mind is on putting Rangers out the cup. That’s what we need to do this weekend and that’s what I’m looking to do. It is a huge opportunity for Hearts.

"The chance to go to Hampden and play in a semi-final doesn’t come along too often, but thankfully we’ve got ourselves in that position to go and play in one. So, we’re all looking forward to it. Recent performances have been getting better as well, there’s been a lot more positives for us across maybe the last five or six games.

“Results have maybe not gone the way we wanted in some games but performances have been getting better. So, we can go into this game with confidence.”

Shankland isn’t thinking about joining Gers but he would love to link up with Scotland boss Steve Clarke in Germany next summer. The then Dundee United frontman missed out the national team’s last Euros appearance in 2021 when he failed to make Clarke’s cut.

But with seven goals already this season he’s hoping he’ll make the