The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dark Blues linked with striker after Nabi signs
Shankland in McCann’s sights as midfielder earns short-term deal at Dens Park
Dundee boss Neil McCann has bolstered his squad with the addition of attacking midfielder Adil Nabi and has also been strongly linked with a move for Ayr United front man Lawrence Shankland.
Nabi has been on trial with the Dark Blues this summer and travelled with the team for the pre-season training camp in Portugal, scoring in the match against SC Farense while in the Algarve.
The 24-year-old, who has also had spells with Delhi Dynamos in India as well as Peterborough United, is a product of the youth academy at West Bromwich Albion.
Now, he has done enough to convince McCann to hand him a six-month deal at Dens, becoming the manager’s sixth new signing of the summer.
Meanwhile, Dundee are understood to be keen to snap up Ayr United’s highly-rated striker Shankland.
The former Aberdeen and St Mirren forward scored 29 times last season as the Honest Men clinched promotion from League 1 and has continued where he left off this campaign, netting seven times including two hat-tricks in the Betfred Cup.
However, Shankland penned a new one-year contract in May with Ayr who have slapped a £250,000 valuation on the 22-year-old.
Last night Somerset Park boss Ian McCall responded to the speculation, admitting there had been interest in the player from both here and England but stopped short of naming the clubs involved.
He said: “I wanted to respond to the media speculation over the last 24 hours surrounding Lawrence Shankland.
“There have been inquiries over the last few weeks about a number of our players including Lawrence Shankland.
“All of these players are under contract to Ayr United Football Club. It would be wrong of me to mention club names.
“However we have had a number of inquiries about Lawrence from north and south of the border.
“All of these clubs have been informed that we would be extremely reluctant sellers and that it would take a significant transfer fee with a number of add-ons for us even to consider it.
“As everyone can see by his form, Lawrence is fully committed to Ayr United and thoroughly enjoying his football.
“Personally I am sure that he will go on to play at the top level but at this minute he is very much an Ayr United player.”