Stephen McGowan shares Rangers-Shankland ‘Problem’ after January transfer saga

According to Stephen McGowan, the reason why there was so much clamour for Rangers to sign Hearts’ Lawrence Shankland in January was that the Ibrox club never made any real inquiries.The journalist for the Daily Mail maintained that a large number of former professionals had influenced the decision, to the point where it was hard to ignore the rumours and the narrative continued to expand on conjecture.

Although Shankland, the current SPFL top scorer and a lifelong Rangers supporter, made sense, the story strayed from the facts. Rangers had been looking to add a new striker in January.

McGowan shared in his column for the Scottish Daily Mail [3 February, page 109] that it was hard to turn on a TV or radio for weeks without hearing former professionals preach about the merits of the Scotland striker moving to Ibrox.

“The issue was that Rangers never made any kind of inquiry, much less a bid, about the Hearts skipper. The narrative developed on the basis of conjecture and assumption.
Are there media rumours about Shankland?
It gradually dawned on many at the close of the transfer window that Shankland would stay at Hearts – at least for this season – because it became evident that no new striker would arrive after the arrival of Fabio Silva at the beginning of the window.

McGowan clarified that although there had been a lot of chatter about his potential relocation to Ibrox, it had never really come from there. It had almost felt inevitable that his future would be in Glasgow.

Throughout the window, several claims surfaced in the media; however, upon reflection, it seems that commentators, such as Barry Ferguson, were the ones promoting the transaction rather than hard facts.

Ferguson continued to speak after the window closed, stating that while he can see Rangers supporters’ disappointment at Shankland’s absence, there doesn’t seem to have been any real interest at Ibrox.

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