Lawrence Shankland is Rangers captain material as Ibrox Treble winner admits Hearts sympathy

Colin Hendry insists Rangers target Lawrence Shankland is the perfect fit to take on the captain’s armband at Ibrox. The Hearts skipper is closing in on a sensational free transfer switch to his boyhood heroes. A medical, pencilled in for Tuesday, is the final formality to be signed off before the 30-year-old frontman completes his dream move back to Glasgow on an initial two-year deal. Shankland had been due to meet up with Steve Clarke’s World Cup-bound Scotland squad this week but he’s been given the thumbs up from the national team boss to leave their build-up camp so he can finalise his Ibrox transfer.

Now as well as being handed a blue jersey, former Scotland and Gers defender Hendry reckons Light Blues boss Danny Rohl should also give Shankland the honour of leading his revamped side next season. Former captain James Tavernier departed the club last week after an 11-year stint, leaving the role vacant. And Hendry - who skippered Scotland at two major tournament appearances - can think of no better man to take on the armband than Shankland after watching the Jambos ace drag Hearts to within a whisker of the club’s first league title in 66 years. He said: “Lawrence is 30 now.

So he's at an age where he’s at his best. He's captained Hearts as well. “And there's a bit of Scottishness going back in there. “I'm not making a comparison to when I signed in ’98 for Rangers after being at the World Cup.

But that was one of the things that was mentioned to me, saying we just need a bit more of a Scottish identity back. “So we signed the Scottish captain of the World Cup at the time. “For me, signing Shankland this summer is a statement. “It's a massive statement and probably what Rangers need. It really is. Maybe he should have been signed earlier. “He’s had a good season for Hearts. He scored important goals for them as well as captained the team. “So it could be that he is the first part of the puzzle that Danny Rohl is trying to build in relation to challenging Celtic and Hearts again next season. “As for the captaincy at Ibrox, well my old Blackburn team-mate Alan Shearer was captain of England and played up front, so I’m not against a frontman wearing the armband. “The only position I'm not sure about being a captain is a goalie, but there you go. “But Lawrence certainly fits the bill for that sort of role.

Absolutely.” Record Sport revealed on Sunday that Rangers were set to whisk Shankland away from Tynecastle without having to pay a penny to the Gorgie outfit. A break clause in the three-year deal he signed with Hearts last summer means he is able to walk away this month, as long as it is triggered before the transfer window opens. Hendry has sympathies with the Jambos support, who had fallen in love with a player who had rattled in 88 goals over four seasons.

But he’s glad to see Rangers right the wrongs of last summer, when former Ibrox boss Russell Martin passed up the chance to sign the Scotland hitman on free. “I was surprised that he's able to come out of his Hearts contract, to be honest,” said Hendry. “But that's the agreement. obviously, it's been cleverly organised with the agreement in his contract. “Hearts fans won’t like it but at the point in time a year ago when he signed his deal, I think Hearts would have been probably quite happy to say, ‘Listen, we're going to sign you for a year and include the break clause that means can leave on a free transfer’. “It’s a unique situation, but in order for the uniqueness to happen, then you've got to have a situation that is also unique as well. “So yeah it’s hard for the Hearts supporters reading that. “But for Rangers, we could probably possibly have had him a year ago. I’m just glad it’s happening now.” Shankland will now fulfil an ambition he’s held since childhood when he joins the club he’s grew up supporting. Hendry knows just how that feels having won a domestic treble with Dick Advocaat’s glittering Gers squad after moving to Ibrox at the age of 33. The former Blackburn stopper said: “I had something similar.

I was happy enough in England to play out my career. “But when you get an opportunity, even at 33, to sign for the club you supported, you don’t turn it down. I thought it would be now or never, really. “There was a lot of changes going on at Ibrox at the time, including the manager and all the different players coming in. “So from that point of view, I thought maybe it might pass me by. “But to have the chance to do what I did was magical. Fairytale stuff, really. “The only thing was I signed a week too late! “Dick said to me, ‘You've arrived a week late so you didn't get the captaincy. Lorenzo's got that.

And you didn't get the number five shirt because in Holland, that goes to the left back. So you didn't get either. It’s Arthur Numan’s now.’ “I'm like, ‘Cheers, Dick. Good start.

Brilliant!’ “I do a lot of after-dinner speaking now and I tell that story. People go, what a start.

But I say, ‘Yeah, but what a finish. That's what's important, isn't it? I've got the medals to show for it. “Sometimes I have these flashes of people talking to me in proper Doric from where I come from in Keith. “'For a loon fae Keith to dae that, it's f**king ridiculous! It's mental’." Colin Hendry was launching the Refugee World Cup Scotland 2026 tournament on Sunday 21 st June at Toryglen Regional Football Centre.

The Wheatley Group and Glasgow Life sponsored event celebrates the diversity of communities in Scotland through football.