Neilson: No plans to sell Boyce or to buy Shankland

HEARTS manager Robbie Neilson admits he has no plans to sell Liam Boyce and has played down a move for Scotland international Lawrence Shankland.

Boyce – the Tynecastle side’s top scorer last season with 16 goals – has been linked with a move to Premiership rivals Aberdeen as he approaches the final year of his contract. However, Neilson is adamant that the Northern Ireland marksman is going nowhere – especially as he is the only recognised striker at the club as things stand. And on the day Belgian outfit Beerschot said Shankland was not for sale, Neilson claimed that Hearts had not made a move for the 26-year-old Scotland cap.

Neilson, who takes his squad to the south of Spain today for a week-long training camp, said: “The Boycie one was strange! I saw that the other day. There’s been no contact between clubs or anything. Boyce has been our top goalscorer the two years I’ve been here. I don’t want to lose him and I don’t expect to.”

On Shankland, a player he worked with during his time as Dundee United boss, Neilson said: “There is nothing, although there has been a lot of talk about it. I think it’s this time of year. I know Shanks really well but at this moment there is nothing happening. If that changes then we will see, but I don’t think it will.”

Neilson, meanwhile, insists Hearts believe they have no case to answer over Dundee United’s claim that they would be due compensation for Lewis Neilson. The versatile defender signed a three-year deal at Tynecastle earlier this month on what Hearts described as a “free transfer” from United, a club he had been at for nine years.

The case looks set to be settled by a tribunal after United sporting director Tony Asghar said the Tayside outfit were “very confident” that they would be due a fee. Neilson said: “We’ll wait and see. We’re pretty confident about the things that happened and the process of it.

“It’s up to United to say what they think about it. We’ve heard nothing from the SFA, so as far as we’re concerned, we’ve done everything above board.”