Emile Heskey signed for Liverpool on the 10th March 2000 in a long-anticipated £11M move, which, at the time, set the record transfer fee for the Merseyside club. He went on to make 150 appearances for The Reds, scoring 39 goals in the process. Heskey, who also has 62 caps for England, went on to play for Birmingham, Wigan, Aston Villa. Now, after returning from a two-year spell in Australia with Newcastle Jets, Emile is back in England leading the line for Championship side Bolton Wanderers.
Heskey’s Bolton career got off to the best possible start too. He came on as a half-time substitute for Robert Hall with Bolton 1–0 down at home to Blackburn Rovers back in December, and scored the equalising goal in the 59th minute, Bolton then went on to win the match 2–1.
This weekend, Heskey returns to Anfield, the ground where he made a name for himself and enjoyed the most successful stint of his career playing alongside the likes of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen. Neil Lennon’s side were drawn against Liverpool in FA Cup 4th Round after they edged past Wigan at the Reebok Stadium in the previous round, and Heskey is relishing the prospect of playing against his former club.
Heskey told me: “I’m always delighted to go back to Anfield, I had great years there; the fans were absolutely fantastic to me so I can’t complain, it’s always nice to go back and play against an old team. At the end of the day you always want to play in the big games and this is a massive game for us, whether it’s in the cup or not, it’s massive”.
As we all know, Heskey’s former teammate at both club and international levels Steven Gerrard will join Los Angeles Galaxy in July. The former England midfielder will play for the Major League Soccer club after his contract at Anfield expires. This was news that all Liverpool fans were dreading, the news that Captain Fantastic wouldn’t be leading Liverpool out anymore. I joked with Heskey that he might be tempted to persuade Gerrard to ditch plans of playing in the sunshine in America to link up with him at Bolton, just like they used to do at Liverpool back in the day.
“I think he’s already booked the flight!” Heskey joked, “He’s a fantastic player and he’s been a wonderful servant for Liverpool. He’s been a catalyst for everything that’s been good over the last 10-15 years and he’ll be sorely missed. I think he still has a couple more years left in the Premier League but it’s probably the right time for him to go and only time will tell if it’s the right move or not”.
After a disappointing start to the season for the Reds, they’ve improved in recent weeks with Brendan Rodgers’ men moving up to eighth in the Premier League table after going unbeaten in their last six league games.
“It’s been a difficult season for them” Heskey explained. “At the start of the season everything looked a bit flat, I don’t know if it was because of the World Cup and a lot of games played over the calendar year but they looked flat. They’re coming into their own now, they’ve got some dynamic players and the players that they brought in are starting to show the consistency and the game play that made Brendan Rodgers buy them”.
Wise words from Heskey, and I agree with him. After changing formation, Liverpool have looked much more organised at the back and are starting to play with the same fluency that served them so well last season. New signings such as Alberto Moreno, Emre Can and Lazar Markovic have come into their own in recent weeks with some excellent performances. Hopefully, they’ll prove their worth in this weekend’s cup game and prevent Heskey’s Bolton side from causing an upset.
To listen to my full interview with Emile Heskey, click HERE.
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