BRINGING back players who were discarded in the past is always a risky business in football – but one Liverpool should take with Emile Heskey.
Wigan already seem resigned to him leaving and pursuing his dream of returning to Champions League football and making England’s squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
And that is why Liverpool should find a way of doing whatever is necessary to tempt Heskey back to Anfield.
Let’s face it, that’s not really too much is it? Both terms of persuading him to return and coughing up the cash to make it happen.
The player has already hinted he would love to go back and why wouldn’t he? He has unfinished business here because he never had the opportunity to convince Rafael Benitez he was worthy of a place.
And when you think that Djibril Cisse, Milan Baros, Neil Mellor and Florent Sinama-Pongolle were all given chances in Benitez’s first season, then his offloading to Birmingham City seems even more hasty now.
It’s not as if buying Heskey would break the bank either.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan is a businessman and knows it will be a bad move if Heskey is allowed to walk away at the end of the season when his contract runs out.
Why risk that when he’s already going misty-eyed at the thought of bearing down on the Kop end in red shirt once again?
If Wigan, as is looking likely on the evidence of their showing at Anfield on Saturday, seem safe from relegation by the time January ticks round, then they might as well take a couple of million for Heskey then. After all, they might not be in a position where they have to rush out and get a replacement.
However they want to play it is up to them and the player of course. But from Liverpool’s point of view, they certainly need a proven top flight striker to boost their numbers in that area of the field. It’s clear they haven’t got the four forwards that you generally need to have a squad strong enough to sustain a title challenge.
With Fernando Torres injured, Dirk Kuyt might be in form but nobody is convinced he can produce that kind of goalscoring week-in week-out.
Robbie Keane is still struggling to find his feet and David Ngog is too raw to know what you’re going to get from him – the exact opposite of Heskey in fact. But the most important thing about Heskey is that he gives you something different.
You don’t buy him and say: “Right, we want 16 goals from you.” He doesn’t do that.
However, you do know what you are going to get from him and, as England have found to their benefit in the past week, that is more than worth the amount of cash needed to prise him away when the window opens.
Wigan already seem resigned to him leaving and pursuing his dream of returning to Champions League football and making England’s squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
And that is why Liverpool should find a way of doing whatever is necessary to tempt Heskey back to Anfield.
Let’s face it, that’s not really too much is it? Both terms of persuading him to return and coughing up the cash to make it happen.
The player has already hinted he would love to go back and why wouldn’t he? He has unfinished business here because he never had the opportunity to convince Rafael Benitez he was worthy of a place.
And when you think that Djibril Cisse, Milan Baros, Neil Mellor and Florent Sinama-Pongolle were all given chances in Benitez’s first season, then his offloading to Birmingham City seems even more hasty now.
It’s not as if buying Heskey would break the bank either.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan is a businessman and knows it will be a bad move if Heskey is allowed to walk away at the end of the season when his contract runs out.
Why risk that when he’s already going misty-eyed at the thought of bearing down on the Kop end in red shirt once again?
If Wigan, as is looking likely on the evidence of their showing at Anfield on Saturday, seem safe from relegation by the time January ticks round, then they might as well take a couple of million for Heskey then. After all, they might not be in a position where they have to rush out and get a replacement.
However they want to play it is up to them and the player of course. But from Liverpool’s point of view, they certainly need a proven top flight striker to boost their numbers in that area of the field. It’s clear they haven’t got the four forwards that you generally need to have a squad strong enough to sustain a title challenge.
With Fernando Torres injured, Dirk Kuyt might be in form but nobody is convinced he can produce that kind of goalscoring week-in week-out.
Robbie Keane is still struggling to find his feet and David Ngog is too raw to know what you’re going to get from him – the exact opposite of Heskey in fact. But the most important thing about Heskey is that he gives you something different.
You don’t buy him and say: “Right, we want 16 goals from you.” He doesn’t do that.
However, you do know what you are going to get from him and, as England have found to their benefit in the past week, that is more than worth the amount of cash needed to prise him away when the window opens.
No comments:
Post a Comment