AYR United’s chairman Lachlan Cameron has accepted that star striker Lawrence Shankland, who has scored 34 goals this season, will be leaving the club in the summer even if Ayr win promotion to the Premiership through the play-offs. “I can’t see any situation where we would be able to hold on to Lawrence,” admitted Cameron. “We won’t stand in his way.”

Former Celtic striker John Hartson thinks that a big appointment like Jose Mourinho would excite the Celtic fanbase, but is confident that his former team-mate Neil Lennon is capable of leading the club next season.

And Hartson reckons it will be a long time before Lennon’s predecessor Brendan Rodgers is welcomed back to Celtic Park by the club’s supporters.

Kilmarnock striker Kris Boyd, formerly on the books at Ibrox, has called for his former club to give Celtic a guard of honour when the host their rivals this Sunday. “At the end of the day, yeah they might be your rivals but they have won the league,” said Boyd. “Pay them the respect they deserve.”

And Boyd has admitted he doesn’t understand why Allan McGregor kicked out at Marc McNulty during Rangers’ 1-0 win over Hibernian on Sunday. Boyd said: “He doesn’t need to show the Rangers fans he cares by doing stuff like this. His performances show that he cares and that he wants to win with Rangers.”

Ex-Rangers midfielder Graeme Souness reckons that Steven Gerrard must get his players to control their emotions better on the pitch following McGregor’s red card - but insists that you can’t remove aggression entirely. Souness said: “You can’t play at the highest level without having a certain amount of aggravation in your system but it’s about controlling that.”

And Souness has urged the Scottish FA to look beyond the Scottish border in their search for Alex McLeish’s successor as national team manager. “I wouldn’t see that (being Scottish) preventing them from getting the right man,” said Souness.

Ex-Celtic forward Frank McAvennie is confident that Celtic winger James Forrest, who was voted PFA Player of the Year, will remain at the club next season. “He’s going to get a game for Celtic for years to come,” argued McAvennie. “So why would you want to move? He could become one of the greats at Celtic.”

Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke - who was voted Manager of the Year by his peers - has revealed he would like to win silverware, but admitted that it could all change if the right offer from another club came in. Clarke said: “My phone is in my pocket and one call, one good conversation with someone and suddenly you have another decision to make.”

Hibernian defender Paul Hanlon has revealed that he was left baffled by a decision from referee Bobby Madden at Ibrox on Sunday, when he was ordered not to contest a drop ball. “We wanted to contest it, but the referee said that if Rangers wanted to give us the ball back we weren’t allowed to contest it,” said Hanlon. “I didn’t know that was the rule now, but that seems to be the case.”

Partick Thistle chairwoman Jacqui Low has targeted promotion to the Premiership next season - despite the fact that the Jags have flirted with relegation to League One for the entire 2018/19 season. “We’re pretty clear on what is needed in order to seek promotion, and he [Gary Caldwell] is pretty clear on what he needs by way of players,” said Low.

Elsewhere, the Scottish Sun are reporting that Neil Lennon would like to bring Celtic striker Gary Hooper back to the club.

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has praised defender Shay Logan for playing through the pain barrier against Celtic, report the Press and Journal.

And the Scotsman are reporting that Rangers midfielder Liam Burt will leave the club in the summer.