Lawrence Shankland will finalise his move to Rangers on Tuesday with the forward set to undergo a medical ahead of his transfer from Hearts.
Barring any unforeseen complications, the 30-year-old will belatedly sign for his boyhood heroes after the Ibrox club activated a release clause in his contract which allowed him to exit his three-year deal at Tynecastle for nothing this summer.
Shankland has been consistently linked with Rangers down the years only for a succession of managers to overlook him.
Set to finally make the switch, his capture will be seen as a statement of intent from Rangers as they look to atone for another trophyless season under Danny Rohl.
It’s believed that the forward will sign a two-year deal with an option for a third prior to joining up with Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad ahead of Saturday’s World Cup farewell game against Curacao at Hampden.
Lawrence Shankland is set to complete his switch from Hearts to Rangers
Shankland’s impending departure will come as a blow to Hearts fans who are still coming to terms with losing the title on the final day to Celtic.
The striker scored 88 goals in 171 appearances after joining the Gorgie club in 2022 following a year in Belgium with Beerschot.
He previously played with Aberdeen and Dundee United in the Premiership and Ayr United and Queen’s Park in the lower leagues.
He was also loaned out by Aberdeen to Dunfermline Athletic, Greenock Morton and St Mirren.
In total, he has scored 236 goals in 494 club games and four times in 18 Scotland matches.
His most recent Scotland goal came in the win over Denmark in November which helped seal a place in the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
His move to Rangers appears to signal a change of direction after fans questioned why their club appeared averse to signing proven Scottish talents.
On the subject of prioritising SPFL players last week, chairman Andrew Cavenagh made the club’s stance clear.
‘We have a pro-Scottish bias in the club today,’ he said.
Rangers chairman is looking to add Scottish players to the Ibrox squad
‘Meaning, if you have two players roughly equal and one is Scottish then we will take the Scottish player.
‘When we look at what positions we are filling we don’t start with people, we start with profiles. What positions is it, what type of person is it.
‘An athletic centre-back or a ball-winning centre-back for example. How big, how fast? And we are always asking who is Scottish that fits that profile.
‘Every time, we are looking at that. That’s not to say we can just go out and grab 11 Scots off the street and win the title.
‘It is a bias towards Scottish players, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only criteria we look at to build a winning team. I would say we equally look at an SPFL bias.
‘If we’re looking at two players who are roughly similar, and one has extensive SPFL experience against one that does not, we would take the SPFL experienced player.’
