Heart of Midlothian chief executive Andrew McKinlay has revealed the club have had no transfer interest in Lawrence Shankland this month.
The Tynecastle club have offered Shankland a new improved contract - which remains on the table -but haven't had any formal or informal attempts to sign the Scotland striker this month.
Multiple reports had suggested a swell in transfer interest for Shankland after an electric first half of the season, including possible Rangers interest, but McKinlay insists the club have yet to be approached.
READ MORE: Hearts will do all they can to keep Lawrence Shankland reveals Steven Naismith
In a club supporter update with HeartsTV, McKinlay explained: "[We're] well aware, understandable given how good Lawrence has been for us since he came to the club. We are delighted with how well [he's done] and we all know, it's very obvious how important he has been to the team, in particular this season.
"It has been documented that there will be a lot of interest. As of today, we haven't had any.
"We still have had no interest, either formally or informally, expressed in Lawrence and we are not encouraging any interest in Lawrence."
🆕 CEO Andrew McKinlay sat down with @RFBorthwick to chat all things Hearts in what will be the first in a series of regular supporter updates.
— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) January 18, 2024
Full interview coming soon.
Snippet below 👇 pic.twitter.com/ZXyZ7IMUCX
On fresh terms offered to Shankland, his current deal expiring next summer, McKinlay added: "As has also been documented, we have made an offer to Lawrence. Now, Lawrence, as you'd expect is already in the high-pay bracket within the club - we have various brackets for players.
"But we have made him an additional offer and that's gone to him and that remains on the table for him to consider.
"The thing about it is, we'll get some people saying 'You should pay him whatever he wants' and I understand that but I have got to look at things both from the immediate here and now but also in the future.
READ MORE: What Hearts fans learned from the management team presentation
"If you do absolutely break a wage structure or break the bank everyone will suddenly know how much you have paid.
"It's amazing how agents always seem to know what other players are getting and I've got to protect us for the future as well. Anything we do now could have repercussions in the future.
"As we sit here, Lawrence remains a Hearts player and I sincerely hope and believe at the moment that he will be a Hearts player on February 1."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here