Friday, January 23, 2009

Aston Villa Plan To Hijack Emile Heskey's Liverpool Move


Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill wants a face-to-face chat with Emile Heskey - so he can talk the Wigan striker into snubbing Liverpool and signing for him.

O'Neill is planning to make a bid for Heskey which will force Wigan to let the England star speak to him.

He'll then attempt to persuade the target man to join his push for glory. Heskey is wanted by Rafa Benitez, who is keen to give him a return ticket to the Kop, although the Spaniard is happy to wait until he can get him for nothing in the summer.

O'Neill wants to make a case with Heskey to let him know how important he is to Villa right now.

Wigan are resigned to losing Heskey in the summer and for all Steve Bruce's protests they would accept an offer of around £3-£4million for their front runner before the window shuts.

If the Latics accept an offer from Villa, O'Neill will also have to come up with a contract worth £80,000-a-week for Heskey to match the Liverpool terms that will be on the table in the summer. O'Neill is deadly serious about signing the player he launched on the way to success while they were together at Leicester City and feels if he can get faceto- face with him he has a chance.

Liverpool do not want to buy Heskey at a high price just now, but could be put on the spot - especially as Villa now look like serious rivals at the top end of the table.

Benitez may even have to sell a fringe player to finance the deal now, which is another advantage Villa have.

O'Neill, due to fly to Europe to watch another possible target this weekend, failed to land Jermaine Defoe or Craig Bellamy.

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