By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 17 August 08.

Emile Heskey was like an enigma when playing for Liverpool. Sometimes he was amazing and sometimes he could be incredibly frustrating. When on top form he was almost unstoppable running at defenders with tremendous pace and power, almost like a tank. Unfortunately he often appeared to be low on confidence, and at these times he would play in a static style and hardly get involved in the action.

Emile Heskey was born in January 1978 in Leicester. He started his career at home-town club Leicester City, where he made his first team debut against Queens Park Rangers in 1995 at the age of seventeen. He went on to spend five seasons there, during which time he helped Leicester win two League Cups in 1997 and 2000. Emile scored in the 1997 League Cup final victory over Middlesborough.

During the 1999/2000 season Emile was being regularly linked with a big money move to Liverpool. Liverpool’s pursuit of Gareth Barry is not the first time that the club has had a struggle with Martin O’Neill over signing one of his most important players. Back in 2000 the then Leicester City manager did everything in his power to try and keep Emile at the club, describing him as “irreplaceable”. In a very interesting parallel with events during the summer of 2008, Martin O’Neill said the following back in March 2000.

"We as a club did everything we could to persuade Emile to stay with us for as long as possible. But it was his insistence that the deal had to go through before this weekend.

The club had been negotiating terms which we felt would keep him here, really pushing the boat out to show how much we valued him as a player with us. But apparently it was not enough.

I believe our players will be as bitterly disappointed as I am at Emile's decision, coming as it does when we have just won a trophy, are looking towards Europe and had put together the strongest squad in the club's history."

It is incredible how closely these words echo the comments Martin O’Neill has made over the Gareth Barry saga. It’s almost as though, had Liverpool signed Barry, you could literally take this quote and replace the name Emile with Gareth. However unlike in 2008 back in 2000 Liverpool did get their man. In March 2000, Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier paid a club record fee of £11 million to bring Emile Heskey to Anfield. It seemed a strange decision at the time to pay so much for a player who wasn’t a prolific goal-scorer. Houllier answered this criticism by saying;

“You take players not for the number of goals they score but for the role they can play for the team. He is English and an international player. A lot of people should be happy that I am not signing a foreign player. I know the way he plays and fights on the field and he will do that for the red shirts.”

Despite the obvious faults in Heskey’s time at Anfield it cannot be denied that indeed he did give his all for the red shirts. It’s certain that Michael Owen wouldn’t have scored so many goals and he was popular with his team-mates.

Emile made his debut for Liverpool in a home game against Sunderland. It didn’t take long for him to make an impact as he won a penalty in only the third minute of the game. He played well during the final two months of the 1999/2000 season but there remained doubts about his goal-scoring prowess. He scored three goals in twelve games.

These doubts were answered in some style during the following season. Emile was to score twenty two goals as Liverpool won the treble of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup. While he didn’t score in any of the finals his contributions during the previous rounds cannot be criticised. A particular highlight during this season was an excellent hat-trick in a 4-0 win away at Derby County in the Premier League. Not only did he score goals regularly but he was involved in many others too. Some of his crossing for Michael Owen to score stands out as memorable as was the way he would take defenders out of the game. In my opinion it is certain that without Emile’s contributions Michael Owen may not have went on to become European Player of the Year for 2001.

The only problem I really had with Emile during the treble season was that he regularly kept Robbie Fowler out of the team and I never felt he was good enough to lace Fowler’s boots. In both of their autobiographies, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler described how Houllier indicated to them both that they were competing to partner Heskey, who was his first choice up front. I guess that Houllier had to justify the huge amount of money he had spent on Emile, but still I think most of us would agree that there were occasions for Fowler and Owen to play together rather than fighting for the role of second striker. To be honest I find it quite disgraceful that two of our greatest strikers were kept apart in this way. Houller often liked to play with a strong target man and unfortunately for Fowler both Owen and Heskey were quicker than him and so they got the nod to start together more often than not.

The 2000/01 season was by far the best of Emile’s football career in terms of goals scored. He was unable to match the feats the following season and he scored just thirteen goals in fifty four games. During the 2001/02 season Heskey was a regular target for criticism from many Liverpool supporters, including myself. It was during this season that Emile started to show regular signs of a lack in confidence. This was something that would plague the remainder of his Anfield career and even Houllier would bring it up from time to time.

Despite a disappointing second season with Liverpool, Emile had successfully transferred his partnership with Michael Owen into the international arena with England. Emile was one of four Liverpool players in the incredible 5–1 victory over Germany in October 2001. Emile scored the fifth goal and the other three Liverpool players in the England side that night also contained the other goal scorers, Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard as well as Nick Barmby. This prompted many Liverpool fans to dub the result afterwards, Liverpool 5 Germany 1. Emile was part of the England squad for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea. He scored his only World Cup Finals goal during the 3-0 victory over Denmark in the second round.

After he returned from the World Cup, Emile was rumoured to be a target for Tottenham Hotspur and a figure of £12 million was quoted by the press. However Emile remained at Liverpool and then had another poor season in 2002/03. He finished the campaign with a paltry nine goals in fifty one games, including a mere six in the league. I feel as though I’m being a little harsh on Emile during this article. I am trying not to be so negative but I am genuinely struggling to justify such awful goals to game ratios. The one positive I can offer for this period was that although Emile wasn’t scoring many goals he was assisting in many others for his team-mates. Despite missing out on a Champions League place, Liverpool did have one thing to smile about during this season. We defeated Manchester United in the league cup Final with goals from Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard.

It was during the 2002/03 season that I walked out of Anfield early for the one and only time ever before or since. It was during a defeat to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup. In this game Emile made one of the most infuriating misses I’ve ever seen. With the score at 1-0 to Crystal Palace late in the game, he was put through one on one with the keeper. He had almost a third of the opposing half of the pitch to himself and loads of time to beat the keeper. However he seemed to panic and put a tame shot in and gave the keeper an easy save. Minutes later we went 2-0 down with just five minutes to go and I could take no more. I usually cannot justify leaving before the final whistle but this performance was so hurtful I simply couldn’t take any more punishment and had to call it quits for the evening.

The 2003/04 season was to be the last for both Emile and Gerard Houllier. Emile finished his Liverpool career by scoring twelve goals and helping Liverpool to qualify for the Champions League. At the end of the season Gerard Houllier was dismissed and replaced by Rafa Benitez. However a full month before Benitez came along, Emile was sold to Birmingham City for a fee of £3.5 million, potentially rising to £6.25 million. The signing of Djibril Cisse had already been agreed for £14 million before Houllier’s departure. With the club needing funds and Emile unlikely to play much he could no longer remain at Anfield.

Emile did fairly well in his debut season, 2004/05, with Birmingham City. He scored eleven goals and was voted as Birmingham’s Player of the Season by both the fans and players. He didn’t follow this up in the 2005/06 season as he scored just five goals in 40 games and Birmingham City was relegated to The Championship.

Despite a poor return of goals in the 2005/06 season, Emile was snapped up in July 2006 by Wigan Athletic for a fee of £5.5 million. In his first season he scored eight goals and endeared himself to the Wigan supporters with some very heartfelt performances as Wigan battled relegation. The season culminated in Wigan staying in the Premier League on the final day of the season when they defeated Sheffield United, who themselves were relegated.

In September 2007 Emile was recalled to the England squad after a long absence. This was regarded as a huge shock at the time but Emile played superbly in the two World Cup qualifiers against Israel and Russia. Unfortunately he then broke his metatarsal bone and was out for three months. The highlight of his second season with Wigan Athletic, 2007/08 came in April 2008 when he scored a ninetieth minute equaliser against Chelsea, derailing their title hopes.

Emile Heskey was a noble competitor for Liverpool. He was never doubted by his team-mates or his manager, despite the often savage criticism from Liverpool supporters and football writers. While I feel that he didn’t score enough goals to justify his large transfer fee, he did play a huge part in Liverpool winning four major trophies during his time at Anfield. For this reason alone I am able to remember his time in a red shirt with some fondness.

Video of Heskey playing in the 2001 Everton v Liverpool fixture that was just voted the Greatest Premier League Match ever played by Liverpool :

Liverpool's 100 Greatest Premier League Games - No. 01

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

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