Steven Naismith has said Heart of Midlothian offered "as good" as the club can in their bid to extend Lawrence Shankland's contract as he explained why a deadline was put on the offer.

The striker has 18 months left on his deal at Tynecastle Park and Hearts were keen to increase both the length and value of the deal. 

Those talks have since been stopped to focus on the football in the second half of the season.

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“Like any of our players, we think are assets, we will try and prolong their career and time at the club," Naismith said. "We have offered Lawrence a new contract and at this time we’ve offered as good as we can. Then there’s a time limit on it more to stop the questions being asked.

“We want him to be here for as long as he can be. We are doing all we can at the moment, if that’s not right for Lawrence, and who’s to say in the summer it is or isn’t, we will wait and see if anything comes of that.

“At the moment we have stopped everything. We will focus on being successful in the second half of the season. And hopefully, finish with a good cup run and European football at the end of the season.”

Naismith added: "We'll talk about the football, there will come a point where I'm sure we'll have another conversation about a contract extension but it is what it is, he'll sign or he'll not. What I'm not going to accept is consistently getting asked about one player who is here for 18 months minimum if we want him here. So, it's not a big issue, it's basically a deadline and we just move on now, football moves quickly, we'll now focus on the football." 

Despite Shankland's brilliant goal-scoring form for Hearts over the last 18 months, the club received "no phone calls of interest and no bids". It didn't prevent rampant speculation during January and even before. 

There was no anxiety from Naismith over losing the player this window.

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“I was comfortable because I knew what it would take," he said. "If someone was willing to pay that money then the decision is the decision. It’s a hard decision but it’s one you need to take for the bigger picture, the club. But if nobody was going to get to that point then we were always going to keep him. I’ve said we have 18 months of Lawrence being here minimum if that’s what we want.

“The summer will be another issue. If clubs are wanting your players they are going to come and bid. That’s for us to decide."