Alex Lowry the ‘obvious’ candidate for Lawrence Shankland swap transfer between Rangers and Hearts – Chris Jack

The journalist said on the Rangers Review (19 December) that the prospect of the on-loan Hearts winger having any future under Philippe Clement back at Ibrox “remains to be seen”, leaving him likely at the top of the list if a part-exchange offer was on the table for the heavily-linked Tynecastle striker.

However Jack expressed doubt that such an arrangement could be reached given Steven Naismith’s side may prefer cash, and the number of parties who would need to be on board to get a deal done with players going in opposite directions.

Jack said (6m): “It’s easy to say, ‘Just go and give Hearts a couple of players’. That’s assuming those players want to go and sign for Hearts and Hearts has to want those couple of players.

“If Hearts are going to have a transfer fee and money burning a whole in their pocket they might not necessarily want whatever off-casts Rangers want to get rid of during January.

“Alex Lowry is the obvious one. It remains to be seen what future he’s going to have, if any, under Clement at Ibrox.”

One in the hand worth two in the bush?

It seems a long shot for a swap to work even if Shankland does prove to be available in the winter window, and even then it is open to question whether Lowry makes sense as one to go.

The 20-year-old’s development may have stalled since his eye-catching arrival in the senior side two seasons ago, but that appears to have improved with fairly regular first-team football in Edinburgh.

It is true that a loanee who is away from the club when the manager changes often finds themselves out in the cold in terms of the new boss’ plans but Rangers would be sacrificing a potential future asset for the short term.

Clement clearly needs help up top though and there is reason to believe he likes the look of Shankland, 28, to be the man that provides it.

The Belgian coach surely has a hefty list of players he would be happy to let go the opposite direction after the underwhelming summer recruitment drive, but given the high-profile struggles at Ibrox it is unlikely Hearts would be willing recipients.

Perhaps if Lowry was the only bargaining chip that could make it happen it would be a worthy blow to take, especially with Ross McCausland having emerged in the mean time, but it feels more likely that a Shankland deal is done with cash or not at all.

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