Lawrence Shankland sticks with Hearts
However, after becoming a free agent this summer and exploring his options, Shankland has been persuaded by recently-installed manager Derek McInnes to accept an offer to become the club's highest-paid player.
Wonder what the boys had for breakfast this morning? 🤔
🤝 @loveholidays // #loveholidays pic.twitter.com/noG4KlisLW
— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) July 3, 2025
The striker flew out to Spain on Wednesday evening to meet up with the Hearts squad at their pre-season training base and the Jambos announced on Thursday afternoon that he has agreed a deal until 2028, bringing to an end a long-running contract saga.
'Lawrence's not only been ingrained in the club the last few years, he's been a big player for the club, knows his way about the Premiership, knows his way to goal,' McInnes told the Hearts website.
'It just made so much sense on so many levels for me. I've known Lawrence since he was a young boy and I know how important family is to him and how important being happy is.
'I always felt that that was a huge advantage for us. Not only does he enjoy his time at Hearts, those family connections are always very strong.'
Shankland marked his first campaign at the club by becoming the first Hearts player in 31 years to score more than 20 goals in a season and then netted 31 goals in 2023-24 to earn himself every Scottish Premiership Player of the Year award available and secure a place in the Scotland squad for Euro 2024.
He's back.
Lawrence Shankland has agreed a three-year contract with Heart of Midlothian
🤝 @loveholidays // #loveholidays
— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) July 3, 2025
The former Ayr and Dundee United forward's most recent campaign was more of a struggle in front of goal and he incurred the wrath of some fans after a costly Conference League penalty miss away to Cercle Brugge in November, although he did notch five times in his final five appearances to leave supporters clinging to the hope that he might decide to remain at Tynecastle.
The retention of their most prolific forward of the 21st century represents a significant coup at a time when Hearts are embarking on an exciting new era in partnership with Jamestown Analytics and with Brighton owner Tony Bloom on board as a minority investor.
'I do feel that having that recognised number no.9, a goal scorer with a real pedigree, Scotland internationalist, the motivation for Lawrence to do well here at not only a club that he loves, a club that he's happy with,' added McInnes.
'You see the way he's embraced his team-mates this morning. He's a really popular boy, but he's got so much to do here. In my time at Hearts, I want to make sure it's successful and I want Lawrence to feel exactly the same and he does.
'We want to be lifting silverware. We want to be going into group stages in Europe and we want to have a consistent thing going here and that is the driver for all of us. I do feel that having Lawrence in the building gives us a better chance of achieving all that.'
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The start Piastri had demonstrated how difficult it is for the driver on pole to lead by the end of the first lap at Spa by losing the sprint race win to Red Bull's Max Dutchman slipstreamed past Piastri up the hill to Les Combes, and then held the McLaren at bay for 15 laps, while Norris followed closely in the grand prix, it was Norris in front, with Piastri in second and Piastri had been thinking about the opportunity this presented him since losing out on pole the day team boss Andrea Stella said: "This weekend, Oscar, if anything, the only inaccuracy was in qualifying, where his laps weren't perfect."At the same time, we have to say that after the sprint qualifying, he said, 'Yeah, I'm in pole position, but maybe this is not the right place to be in pole position.'"And as a joke, after the qualifying yesterday, he said, 'That was not my best lap in Q3, but perhaps this is the best place not to have the best lap in Q3.'"Sure enough, Piastri took the lead on lap one of the grand prix, just as Verstappen had the day before."I had a good run out of Turn One," he said, "and then tried to be as brave as I could through Eau Rouge and was able to stay pretty close. 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At that point, it seemed like the safest thing to do was go on the medium, because the hard is two steps harder here."Stella said: "We did consider double stacking. At the same time, it was possible for Lando to deviate. He opted to deviate, which would have given him the possibility to go on hard tyres, which is what he decided to do."Actually, I thought at some stage that that would have been a very good move, but I have to say that Oscar managed a very solid and strong stint on the medium tyres. Even if Lando was, on average, a little bit faster, that was not enough to attack Oscar at the end." The chase Norris now had to try to chase Piastri down. 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But in the grand scheme of things, if that's one lap too early, is it worth it? No."
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5 hours ago
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