The most naturally gifted goal scorer since John Robertson has just checked in at Tynecastle.
It’s the image of the summer which also arrived for Hearts fans yesterday with Lawrence Shankland pictured in the club training gear. I look at his range of goals, the tap-ins, headers and strikers from 40-yards, he also scored one recently in Belgium for Beerschot from over the halfway line. No matter what league you play in and no matter the standard, the goals never move and he knows how to find them.
Robbo's are wee shoes to fill but Hearts needed this signing, if they are to split the Old Firm then they need someone who can score between 15 and 20 goals every season and Shankland’s capable of hitting those figures. With the chances that will be created for him, he can score more goals than he’s ever scored in his career so far. His predatory inside the penalty box, he’s at a club now with a style of play which is about attack after attack and if I was Shankland and had his ability then I’d back myself to become the Premiership’s top marksman this season.
Alfredo Morelos has been injured at Rangers and Celtic don’t have an out and out striker, there’s a gap in that market. He’s shown that knack for scoring goals at every club he’s been with in recent years.
I watched him closely when we were teammates at Ayr United. I’ve been banging the drum for months that Liam Boyce needs a bit of help. There was a massive hole on the goal front when he was out of the team last season, Shankland will be able to shore that up.
Make no mistake, this is a significant and shrewd signing, it’s also been done nice and quietly in keeping with the calmness we now see in the business dealings at Tynecastle these days. It’s a drama-free zone and a great bit of business.
Shankland is at an age where his game will start to become the sum of all parts. He now has that experience of playing abroad and scored goals regularly for the past four or five seasons. He’s been consistently fit during that spell and he’s now coming into the prime of his career.
It’s a landmark as well as a legacy signing, over the last six or seven seasons it’s been an influx of players in and players out while the manager’s jacket continued to change hands. He’s at an age which is a year younger than the likes of Barrie McKay where they could be at Hearts for the next six, seven or even eight years in the prime of their careers.
This is such a big signing because you know he will give you goals, the fans will take to him and he’ll take to the club as I know the type of boy he is. He’s the perfect fit, the right type of guy both on and off the pitch and hopefully he comes in and hits the ground running. Shankland has done something similar to my own career where we had to go down the way to come back up.
What that gives him is resilience, he started off at a decent level with Aberdeen and had to go back down and didn’t just come back, he managed to get capped for Scotland. It’s amazing what he’s managed to achieve in the last four seasons.
He can now go and and continue what he’s been doing and become a Hearts legend. It’s just such positive news for Hearts and their supporters. Alan Forrest, Jorge Grant, Lewis Neilson, Kye Rowles and Alex Cochrane have all come in and are great additions. But Shankland has a gift, his goals are worth their weight in goals.
A man who can take half a chance, it’s worth millions of pounds. And don’t be kidded, over the course of a season there will be games where Hearts won’t play well but they will still have a chance of winning with a player who provides a cutting edge.
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