Brendan Rodgers has delivered a glowing tribute to Lawrence Shankland but denied having an interest in signing the striker.
On Sunday at Tynecastle Shankland will be the main threat to Celtic’s title hopes, with goals in each of the two previous matches between the club’s his threat is fairly obvious.
The Scotland striker has 27 goals to his name this season including eight in his last seven matches with his only blank coming at Ibrox last Saturday.
Celtic themselves had netted an impressive 10 goals in their last match and a half but at Tynecastle on Sunday they’ll be up against the most prolific striker in the country.
2 minutes 40 seconds
They’re a good team, but with Shankland getting over 50 per cent of their goals, is it key to keep him quiet?
I really enjoy watching him, because when I was here the first time he was a player that was on the radar and I had heard people speak about him. Anytime I looked at clips, you could see he was a goalscorer.
Having come back and seen him now in the Premiership playing, he’s a boy who looks super concentrated in the game. He’s got really good technique and uses his body well to protect the ball. He scores all types of goals; left foot, right foot and good in the air. He’s a very good player and one that we have to manage well.
The follow up question to that about thinking of making a move for him was met with a quick ‘no’.
During Rodgers first season at Celtic Shankland was on loan at St Mirren from Aberdeen, scoring just four goals in 24 appearances when Lewis Morgan was the star turn for Jack Ross’ side. The following year he fared little better on loan at Morton with five goals in 18 matches.
Freed by Aberdeen in the summer of 2018 Shankland moved down to League One, helping Ian McCall’s side to promotion with a haul of 63 goals from 74 appearances that set his career back on course and earning him moves to Dundee United, Beerschot and Hearts alongside international recognition.
Shankland stats are from Soccerbase.
We should definitely have signed him in January !