What Rangers boss said about Lawrence Shankland speculation

The noise has increased in recent days around the 28-year-old and possible interest from the Ibrox club.

As reported by Hearts Standard earlier this week, the club have received no offers or inquiries about their top scorer from the past two seasons. It is also understood that there have been differing opinions on the striker at Rangers.

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"I don’t go into rumours and I will not speak about players of teams we are going to play against," Clement said when asked about reported interest in the player.

Meanwhile, the Belgian revealed he has an idea in his head about his starting XI to face Hearts in the Scottish Premiership season opener at Tynecastle Park on Saturday. Days after the match in Gorgie Rangers play Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League qualifiers.

"For the Hearts game, yes," he said after a 4-4 friendly draw with Union Berlin, "but it will be another one against Kyiv, that is the only way we can do it. We need to make a rotation in the next couple of weeks because not enough players are ready to have their best performance during 90 minutes.

"It is game by game taking the maximum and seeing who copes with it, who stays fit, who becomes stronger, who is the most competitive. I have an idea in my head today but it can change during the week based on what I see in training."