He’s the man on the lips of every Scotland fan as Euro 2024 slowly but surely creeps up with less than 100 days to go until the big kick-off in Germany.

Lawrence Shankland has never been a guaranteed pick for Steve Clarke when selecting his national team squads. For the upcoming double-header against The Netherlands and Northern Ireland though, the 60-year-old really didn’t have a choice.

The Hearts captain has been in fine goalscoring form this season, bursting the net 20 times in 29 appearances.

Shankland could well be on for a big-money move this summer, with contract talks at Tynecastle stalling in the meantime. Hearts chiefs have made no secret of their desire to make him the highest-paid player in the club, and indeed one of the highest earners in their recent history.

Making an impact for Scotland at the Euros could well seal his future either way. With Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes his competition for strikers, Shankland has as good a chance as both of playing and scoring for Scotland.

Clarke has pointed out the efforts of both Adams and Dykes ahead of the international break this week, but the head coach also spoke warmly about Shankland, who has two goals in seven caps for his country.

“He’s a goalscorer,” Clarke said. “A goalscorer playing in a good Hearts team that’s creating chances and Lawrence is scoring the goals. He’s done well.

“The difference is just experience, more experience. More responsibility, he’s captain of the club.

“Playing in a Hearts team that is competitive at the top end of the table. All those little factors come together. Lawrence will always be a goalscorer.

“Playing for Hearts week in, week out he’s going to get more chances and he shows every week that he’s a good finisher.

“If he gets a chance to play, then we will find out. That’s the bottom line. Lawrence has done well. Don’t forget the other two strikers have been decent for me as well, Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams.

“It’s nice to have Che back. Dykes is maybe not quite getting into the QPR team at the moment, a little bit in and out. But I’ve spoken to him, he’s fine, he’s in a good place. We have three good strikers and they’ll all get game time in the matches.

“I think you know by now that I like my strikers. I like them. It’s good that Lawrence is in there now to keep them on their toes.

“Those three will definitely get game time across the two matches. It’s up to them to impress.”

Shankland made his debut for Scotland in late 2019 in a hefty 4-0 defeat to Russia. While he was in his early 20s at the time, he’s only just now establishing himself as a regular in the A team squad aged 28.

Clarke recognises that this is unusual, but he reflects on two previous examples, one far more recent than the other, of players who didn’t feature in the international scene until the latter days of their careers.

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He said: “I probably think back to someone like Colin Calderwood who was a really late developer. He didn’t come into Scotland squads until, I’d say, early 30s and ended up with a number of caps.

“There’s always the possibility of someone to come through late, the best thing is don’t retire from international football.

“Just keep playing your club football and you never know. Andy Considine turned up towards the end of his career and picked up a few caps and did really well for us. There’s always a chance.

“I remember it was a bad night (Russia). I thought Lawrence was really good when he came into the game. I put him on and his hold-up play was good. Back to goal play was good. 

“He actually improved us, believe it or not, although we lost four goals in the second half I thought he improved the team. It was maybe other people on the night who let Lawrence down a little bit, rather than Lawrence letting himself down.

“I thought he was decent. From then, you get a feel for the player, a feel for the lad. He’s always been there or thereabouts around the squad. Obviously this season his goal record is incredible and he deserved his place in the squad.”

Jacob Brown is another forward player Clarke has in his thoughts ahead of Germany in June. The Luton Town frontman is currently out injured until the end of April, so will only be involved in the warm-up training camp if he’s fit enough to be involved at the Euros.

He won’t be involved in Amsterdam on Friday night, so it’s up to either Shankland, Adams or Dykes to lead the line against Virgil van Dijk.

Clarke knows his players will give him a funny look with the calibre of opposition they’re playing in a friendly – a game some might say could be treated as a dress rehearsal for the opener against Germany.

He added: “You can call it that if you want, if you want to put that as your headline you can do that.

“It’s one of the top European sides. It’s a good challenge, same as France and England was a challenge. Those three friendlies were tough, playing against Spain in the qualifiers was similar.

“We go to Germany for the opening game against the host nation, it’s going to be a tough night. The more we can play against good opposition, the more ready we will be for that challenge. “It will be pretty much bedding in, trying to do what we do. Trying to do it well.

“Trying to play as well as we can play. Obviously, the first game is another where the players keep looking at me thinking: Another friendly like that?

“But as I’ve said before, you have to challenge yourself. And playing Holland away in Amsterdam will be a challenge.

“So it will be a good competitive match for us and don’t underestimate the game against Northern Ireland out there because that will be a tough game as well.”