The Media Pressure On Hearts Over Shankland Is Ramping Up With Jackson Leading The Way.

This morning, Keith Jackson turned in another of his dreadful articles, this time on the subject of Steven Naismith and his press conference before the Scottish Cup game at the weekend.

Here’s the thing; it is not difficult to see what Jackson is doing. This is the start of the media campaign to pressure Hearts into letting their best player go to Ibrox on the cheap.

The unsettling of Shankland himself has been underway for weeks.

Before I trash Jackson’s central point, let’s acknoweldge that he got a few things right.

I thought Naismith’s comments were terrible, and Hearts fans would have taken no comfort from them whatsoever. His assertion – and it’s not the first time he’s said it – that they would be fine without their only proven goal-scorer is patently ludicrous. The impression you get listening to Naismith is that keeping Shankland is not a priority.

Jackson trashed that argument in much the same way I had the day before.

He also expressed his suspicion that Shankland was left out so as not to cup tie him should he end up at another SPFL club and we all know which one that would be, which is the whole point. If that’s true though then everyone at Hearts will have to answer to their supporters should he sign on at Ibrox and then score against them in this tournament.

Jackson also put an actual cash amount on what Hearts are gambling with; a stunning £6 million bounty for the third-place finish and those guaranteed Group Stage games, whether in the Europa League or in the Conference League.

In spite of what a lot of Hearts fans think, that’s far more than Shankland is worth, far more than they would get for him on the open market … and certainly more than they will get for him selling him now to Ibrox, for whatever spare change they can scrape together. The most Ibrox will pay is between £3 million and £4 million probably including add-ons and in such pitifully low instalments that the club would be as well giving him away for free.

We’re entering the last week of the window. Whatever Hearts get for him, there is next to no chance of them bringing in a striker capable of matching his goal return. If such a striker was out there right now, cheap enough for Hearts to afford and yet capable of scoring the number of goals Shankland gets for them, Ibrox would be looking at him instead.

So yeah, Jackson’s article is clearly malicious, and designed to create problems inside the walls at Hearts, but in point of fact, Naismith is already causing his own problems with the way he comes across and the way he talks when this question is put to him.

But Jackson then repeated the great lie that will be heard over and over again in the course of the next few days as this reaches fever pitch; Hearts might have no choice but to accept Ibrox’s paltry offer if and when it comes. That is arrant nonsense of course.

The same narrative has been proposed time and time again about the likes of Abada and O’Riley and others at Celtic Park; the club might have no choice but to let them leave. And it suggests that clubs have no power whatsoever to protect themselves and keep valuable assets, when actually all clubs have to do is lay down the law and say “he’s not for sale.”

Say a late offer from Ibrox comes in. A low offer. With just days of the window left, are we really to believe that Hearts cannot simply reject it? That there’s some imperative at play here that says they have no option but to say “Yes, of course you can have our best player …”? What would happen if they did just reject it?

The media has one theory, I have another.

In the media’s theory, Shankland spits the dummy, goes in the huff, demands the transfer. Would that force Hearts’ hand? The media thinks it would, but what if it didn’t? Unhappy, unsettled player in the dressing room, and nobody wants that surely? This is their rationale for why Hearts will have no option but to cut their losses.

But that’s a narrow minded, pro-Ibrox viewpoint which pays no heed to the real world. Once Shankland is told he’s staying at Hearts come what may, what does he do then?

Brand himself a trouble maker, dig in his heels and refuse to play?

He has 18 months left on his deal so it’s not even like he can walk in the summer if that’s what he chooses to do. Hearts can hang onto him like grim death if that’s what they see as in their best interests.

Are Ibrox going to wait another year to get him? Cause in the minds of the hacks that’s the move he’s holding out for. But they can’t afford to wait and they won’t. So, Shankland will be at Hearts with his contract running down and the offer he wants will be gone.

At that point he has two options; knuckle down and play as well as he can so that wherever he does land next is at least half decent or he can act like a spoiled brat and head into a renegotiation at 30, a fading player with nothing to offer and no chance of getting the deal he thinks he deserves.

The big stage for him, if he wants to make his mark and impress England, is the Euros. If he downs tools for the second half of the season his chances of going with the Scotland squad shrink to just about zero; Steve Clark barely plays him as it is. He’s certainly not going to play someone in the huff and who has acted in an unprofessional manner.

All this is to say that this idea that Hearts simply have no choice but to sell Shankland should Ibrox come calling is entirely false.

The only fee that would make a difference to the club and tip the balance here is the sort that Ibrox simply cannot afford, and that should put an end to the story. But Jackson’s piece makes it clear that the hacks are willing to go low, to pressure both club and player, and to smooth the way for a low-ball bid.

The problem for Hearts fans isn’t Keith Jackson, although they are raging at him today for the piece. Their real problem is that their manager hasn’t issued a hands-off warning of any description and actually seems to be fairly relaxed about the prospect of Shankland going. I doubt he would be in the same frame of mind if the player was linked with Celtic.