EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - MAY 04: Rangers head coach Danny Rohl (L) and Sky Sports pundit Kris Boyd before a William Hill Premiership match between Heart of Midlothian and Rangers at Tynecastle Park, on May 04, 2026, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Kris Boyd is delighted to see that the Close Season Cup remains at Ibrox.
Two days after Celtic won a real trophy all bets are off over the Close Season Cup with Lawrence Shankland about to move to Ibrox.
The misery of four consecutive post-split defeats and Celtic’s double success has almost instantly been wiped from the memory of Ibrox fans.
For three solid weeks they were angry bears. At best Danny Rohl had 10% backing in votes conducted by fans.
That has now changed with the imminent arrival of Shanks, a stranger looking in would think that Harry Kane was about to be paraded on the marble staircase.
Shankland will become first choice striker, penalty taker and also take on the cherished armband that used to be the property of James Tavernier.
— ?Celt For Life? (@CeltForLife_) May 24, 2026
At the age of 30 Shanks has won less trophies than the departing skipper but does fall into the key recruitment category.
Shankland is a bear. One of their own, he gets it.
And on that basis the Close Season Cup will remain at Ibrox for another summer.
Back in 2015 Mark Warburton claimed the trophy by signing Tavernier, Martyn Waghorn and Andy Halliday.
A year later Joey Barton, Nicky Kranjcar, Josh Windass and Pip Senderossent shock waves across the football world.
EMOTIONAL BOYD GETS MISTY EYED OVER DREAM SIGNING
Boyd has saluted every signing over the last 11 years as an inspired move.
Sharing a similar DNA profile as the Scotland star, the former Portland Timbers striker is ecstatic about the Shankland news.
Explaining to Sun readers that more than just next season’s Balon d’Or winner will be arriving at Ibrox in the coming days Boyd said:
Shankland brings so much on the pitch – but his influence behind the scenes could be just as huge.
Rangers at this moment in time need men to lead the group and Shankland will do that.
There has to be a mentality shift and he’s the type or character who can change that.
He has been Hearts captain but he’s the type of player who doesn’t need the armband to motivate the people around him.
He also understands what Rangers football club is all about.
I have absolutely no doubt he will score goals for the team too.
Shankland has the knack of finding the net out of nothing even when the team isn’t playing particularly well. Hearts managed to grind out so many wins and he was key to that.
All of that and more will be required if Danny Rohl is to survive into the winter.
Pre-season training begins at Murray Park on June 19 with Shankland on Scotland duty at the World Cup Finals.
A shortened pre-season won’t do the former Ayr United striker many favours with the SPFL starting on August 1/2 with an away match for Rohl’s side.
A Europa League Third Round qualifier on August 6 and 13 will be testing with trips to Celtic Park and Tynecastle expected in the first round of fixtures.
Sky Sports, Radio Scotland, TalkSPORT and BBC 1 are all providing live coverage of the signing ceremony with Jim White making a guest appearance to conduct the media conferences.
Good on RFC!! They moved and snapped him up whilst Man City, Real Madrid and a host of Top Clubs slept off their Trophy Winners Hangovers! And FOC!! Brilliant!
Only in Scotland would this be given the extraordinary Big Licks from the MSM. The Laptop Loyal Lapdogs will go to town on this free transfer of a Bang Average Player!
Just wait to you see who they have lined up to join him,the names will blow you away.
There won’t be a game on TV throughout the World Cup that a player from that country will be linked with them heading to Govan.
“He also understands what Rangers (sic) football club is all about.”
Aye it’s DEAD.
Apart from that, what is it all about?
He’ll also understand Tony B that (‘Rangers’ deceased c.2012) have a doppelgänger replacement called Sevco FC…
Who have won THREE miserly trophies in 13 years and 301 fu**in days as of today !
To baldly go no where, it’s life as they know it
Sevco state they offer an out of this world experience to all and because winning trophies is alien to them, they’ve developed a new mode of transport to launch a recruitment drive to infinity and beyond, travelling in SpeX’s RNIB-MK3 spacecraft Appalling Eleven. The cost-naught-a-lots will touch down at Cape Farcical a nuclear confusion site, based in Ibrox with a state of the art inferiority complex.
The astronuts are paidloads to undertake a mission impossible, the Sol aim is to become Champions. They didn’t planet well this season having only Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it’s NASA easy to Eclipse Celtic’s achievements, UFO was the message sent back to the challengers craft. The dark matter of the Asterix Years when the RFC had the Gaul to cheat, gives the Sevco49Gers Zero Integrity, sightings of Liquidated RFC spaced out zombie Klingons now have nothing to phone home about, be good!
The incoming creatures who have the same DNA are given a medical to test if they’re dead or alive, a Trump IQ test for any sign of intelligence present, once they’ve failed that a contract gets signed for them. The assortment of creatures named from the Galaxy XI are GK Han So-Slow, Buzz Nightmare, Neil Headstrong, Frank Enstein, Lawrence Shankland (illogical captain), Luke Skylarker, Venus Flycrap, Comet Suicide, Atlas Elastoplast, Cosmos Harm and Warped Mind they will no doubt prove themselves a better side than last season but will ultimately turn out to be galactic mistakes for the club. The Delaware consortium will be floating around until their oxygen levels run out leaving Hybroxia in a state of unconsciousness.
While I don’t rate Shankland very highly, the ugly mob are at least getting on with business in line with a defined strategy while we haven’t yet revealed who will be sitting in the home dugout next season despite having an interim head coach in charge for nearly five months now….
Sevco “going the Jock Wallace route” might be amusing on paper but we were so poor last season that their ragbag team could have overtaken us if they had the nerve. Wallace himself might have caused some amusement when he had them running up sand dunes all summer but that fitness-based approach when combined with our board selling off prize assets and failing to reinvest the profits back in the team meant he won the championship after three seasons.
Beware the lessons of history, Celtic.