Made in Ayr. Took flight in Gorgie.
Honestly, the thought of seeing my old Somerset Park team-mate Alan Forrest reacquainted with Lawrence Shankland in a Hearts line-up next season has me giddy.
Forrest, Barrie McKay, Liam Boyce, Shankland – a fantastic four that would take Hearts soaring to the next level.
The Forrest half of the old Ayr partnership, which blew away Championship defences for fun a few years ago, has already been delivered.
And Shankers’ name keeps being linked with Hearts.
Joe Savage admitted last month he’s on the radar and having worked with Robbie Neilson before, you’d like to think the player would be keen.
Obviously the price tag could be a major hurdle. Listen, it’s still only talk but Hearts will be serious about Shankland and Robbie’s not hidden the fact a new No.9 is his priority.
Ellis Simms did a fantastic job last season and a loan return from Everton is still a possibility.
But it looks like the Jambos will have to wait a while for an answer on that one, so if a deal for Lawrence can be done, it’s an absolute no-brainer.
Shankers came to Ayr after my time but I know him well and I have watched his
progression closely.
What he did at Ayr was sensational but I bet you he would pay a huge amount of credit to Alan on the supply line.
They tore apart defences and to get Ayr into the play-offs that 2018-19 season as second top scorers in the Championship was incredible.
Lawrence is already proven in Scotland – he has done it for Ayr and Dundee United.
He scores all sorts of goals and has strength to lead the line.
He would get plenty of opportunities in that Hearts side and I would hang my hat on him scoring a barrowload.
Next to Boyce, with McKay and Forrest out wide, it would be dynamite.
I played with Alan at Somerset. He’s a great lad and will be good around about the place.
I always thought Ayr should have cashed in on him because they’d have got decent money.
They chose not to and when he left two years ago, he proved at Livingston what a talent he is. I knew that wouldn’t be the end of his story. Alan now has the chance to reach another level at Tynecastle and I’m sure there are more gears in him – there will have to be because the pressure to produce every week will be there.
I can’t believe he’s still only 25 because it seems like Alan
was in that Ayr team for 10 years before he made his move to Livi.
But he’s a great age with bags of experience and it was a shrewd piece of business to get him in at Tynecastle.
The transfer window has been decent so far with Alan, Kye Rowles and Lewis Neilson in the door at Tynecastle.
No doubt the new boys will get to know all about their new team-mates when they fly out to Malaga for the pre-season training camp next week.
I loved those trips.
Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown always took us to Il Ciocco in Italy. It was a Fawlty Towers type hotel hanging off a mountain and was hard work.
But what a laugh.
I can still see wee Billy standing at the top of the steepest hill they could find, lathered in sun tan lotion with his top off, his wee moobs hanging out and a whistle around his neck.
For hours we would just run when he blew his whistle and stop when he blew it again. And on... and on... and on. Guys like Andy Webster and David Obua absolutely hated it.
We went back to the hotel and the gaffer caught big Marius Zaliukas having a fag on the balcony.
Jim was raging. “He cannae be smoking cigarettes after a day’s training!”
He told us to go and have a word with him. It turned out he’d already warned Zal to quit the fags and the big man wasn’t giving two hoots.
That was Marius to a tee. He was a top pro, a top player and captain, and a top person.
But if he wanted to have a smoke, he’d have a smoke no matter what anyone said.
