Emile Heskey of the Rovers

[jim mk2]

I learnt at the weekend that Rovers had an offer accepted for Emile Heskey in early 1994 when he was just 16 and had yet to make his first-team debut for Leicester City

If that's common knowledge I'll hold my hands up and admit I'd never heard it before but it was certainly news to me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SuperBrfc]

That's the first I've heard of it too. He was explosive as a teenager so would have been an interesting signing.

My first real memory of Heskey is him running riot at Ewood on the final day of the '96/97 season. He scored twice in a 4-2 win for Leicester and the headlines afterwards were mainly "pesky Heskey" themed.

I've not looked it up, but I think there's a good chance that Heskey scored more goals against Rovers than against any other club during his career.

He always seemed to score against us no matter who he played for. This carried on right up until the final knockings of his career at Bolton, where he got an equaliser against Rovers on his debut for them in 2014.

Pesky Heskey? Indeed.

[ben_the_beast]

8 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

That's the first I've heard of it too. He was explosive as a teenager so would have been an interesting signing.

My first real memory of Heskey is him running riot at Ewood on the final day of the '96/97 season. He scored twice in a 4-2 win for Leicester and the headlines afterwards were mainly "pesky Heskey" themed.

I've not looked it up, but I think there's a good chance that Heskey scored more goals against Rovers than against any other club during his career.

He always seemed to score against us no matter who he played for. This carried on right up until the final knockings of his career at Bolton, where he got an equaliser against Rovers on his debut for them in 2014.

Pesky Heskey? Indeed.

You've triggered one of my earlier memories watching Rovers. Seeing him flying at us like a 100 meter Olympic sprinter. We couldn't handle him that day. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

The first time I saw him play for Leicester  I thought “ That’s the new Alan Shearer “. It didn’t turn out that way although he had a long and successful career.

[tomphil]

9 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

That's the first I've heard of it too. He was explosive as a teenager so would have been an interesting signing.

My first real memory of Heskey is him running riot at Ewood on the final day of the '96/97 season. He scored twice in a 4-2 win for Leicester and the headlines afterwards were mainly "pesky Heskey" themed.

I've not looked it up, but I think there's a good chance that Heskey scored more goals against Rovers than against any other club during his career.

He always seemed to score against us no matter who he played for. This carried on right up until the final knockings of his career at Bolton, where he got an equaliser against Rovers on his debut for them in 2014.

Pesky Heskey? Indeed.

That's the first thing i thought of he absolutely tore us a new one in that and i think he was only 18/19ish.

He had a great career and served every club he was at well he would have been fantastic for Rovers but we missed out on a lot of young players around that period.  We had money and agents all over Europe were offering young talent but the policy at the time was buy ready made it seems.

Carew was another we passed on, Zidane was offered allegedly and Dugarry i think, if ever we needed a DoF it was then.

Back to Heskey i don't think there has ever been a player of his build fall over so much but still score so many goals.

Edited March 28, 2023 by tomphil

[DaveyB]

54 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

The first time I saw him play for Leicester  I thought “ That’s the new Alan Shearer “. It didn’t turn out that way although he had a long and successful career.

I remember thinking the same - that he would take on Shearer’s mantle with England once Big Al had retired - but I don’t think he ever had the same kind of drive and determination that Shearer had. I’d love to have seen what he’d have become with Kenny as his manager though. 
 

Incidentally, I heard a former Leicester player talking on the radio a while back (not sure who though) and he described Heskey as one of the best centre backs he’d ever played with - apparently during knock-about games in training Emile would always drop back and play centre back and this guy on the radio said he was brilliant there - in fact he was convinced that, had he played regularly in that position, he would have gone on to be one of the all-time greats. He also said that he had thought Heskey would eventually end up playing there towards the end of his career, a la Dion Dublin, and was surprised that it had never happened 

[LeftWinger]

11 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

Rovers than against any other club during his career.

This is just Premier League goals as well. Pretty sure he will have scored against us outside of the Premier League as well. 

[jim mk2]

Confession time ...... this information came from Heskey himself

By chance I met Heskey at the weekend when he told me that Rovers tried to sign him.

Rovers offered £1 million, which Leicester accepted, but he decided to stay at his home town club because he felt he was too young at 16 to make the move.

Fair enough. He went on to have a wonderful career (he's 45 now and coaching the women and kids at Leicester) during which he made more than 600 league appearances scoring 130 goals, and won 62 England caps - which he's rightly very proud of (have to say it came as a surprise that he won so many)

But it got me thinking.

If Heskey had joined Rovers in early 1994, is it likely that we would then have gone out and signed Chris Sutton in July of that year - at £5 million the most expensive player in English football at the time - and might the title-winning SAS strike partnership of Shearer and Sutton never have existed? Would it have been Heskey and Shearer - or HASH?

It's more likely Rovers wanted him for his future potential rather than go straight in the first team but we did miss out by not signing him because when Shearer left we would have had a top-class ready-made replacement.

[bluebruce]

Don't really get the Heskey love-in here. Always thought he was pretty shit. Admittedly he was a beast on his day, but there were never enough of those. I don't recall him when he started out, I was a bit young. But Jim describing him as 'a top class, ready-made replacement' for Shearer makes me wonder if Jim has started smoking crack in the mornings. What an insult to Shearer! Heskey was more of a slightly better Jason Roberts. Muscle and hustle but a pretty shite finisher. Granted we bought a load of crap up front after Shearer, but the magical answer would in no way have been Emile fucking Heskey. Better than what we bought, granted.

Every time he was linked with us later in his career, I got very nervous it would actually happen, and glad when it didn't. All of this is in spite of the fact that I saw him menace us numerous times, it was almost like he hated us. But I also saw Ostenstadt score against us regularly...probably more goals against us than for us when his career was done! Maybe some of you are basing it more off those games against us.

There have probably been less deserved 60+ cap hauls for England, but it's a short list.

Also, the story above, if true, is a sickener. We were willing to pay 1 million for a 16 yr old Heskey in 94, but not willing to pay slightly more (think it was meant to be 1.5 mill?) to sign a young Zidane? Fuck me we got that wrong!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

As a kid he was brilliant. For whatever reason he didn’t really go on to be the world beater he looked like he was going to be at 17 or 18.

[jim mk2]

35 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Don't really get the Heskey love-in here. Always thought he was pretty shit.

You don't win 62 England caps and play about 150 games and scoring 40 goals for Liverpool by being "shit"

[bluebruce]

6 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

You don't win 62 England caps and play about 150 games and scoring 40 goals for Liverpool by being "shit"

Funny, Heskey did. That 40 for Liverpool amounts to less than 10 a season btw. Playing for a top side. One season there he scored 6 in 32. Not fit to lace Shearer's boots.

[MarkBRFC]

1 hour ago, jim mk2 said:

Confession time ...... this information came from Heskey himself

By chance I met Heskey at the weekend when he told me that Rovers tried to sign him.

Rovers offered £1 million, which Leicester accepted, but he decided to stay at his home town club because he felt he was too young at 16 to make the move.

Fair enough. He went on to have a wonderful career (he's 45 now and coaching the women and kids at Leicester) during which he made more than 600 league appearances scoring 130 goals, and won 62 England caps - which he's rightly very proud of (have to say it came as a surprise that he won so many)

But it got me thinking.

If Heskey had joined Rovers in early 1994, is it likely that we would then have gone out and signed Chris Sutton in July of that year - at £5 million the most expensive player in English football at the time - and might the title-winning SAS strike partnership of Shearer and Sutton never have existed? Would it have been Heskey and Shearer - or HASH?

It's more likely Rovers wanted him for his future potential rather than go straight in the first team but we did miss out by not signing him because when Shearer left we would have had a top-class ready-made replacement.

Considering Heskey was only 16 at the time we definitely would have still signed Sutton.

Heskey would have been in view to replacing either one of the SAS in a few years if they moved on.

[jim mk2]

21 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

Considering Heskey was only 16 at the time we definitely would have still signed Sutton.

Heskey would have been in view to replacing either one of the SAS in a few years if they moved on.

 Yes, agree. And what a good replacement he would have been for Shearer compared to the likes of Blake and Ward 

[roversfan99]

I was also too young to really remember Heskey breaking through but to be fair he was definitely more than a bit better than Jason Roberts, for all of Heskey's faults. Back during Heskey's career 2 up front were common and he was an excellent foil for the likes of Owen through his unselfish play, he could bring the ball into his body and link play much better than Roberts who had as poor a first touch as you will see at that level.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

This is just Premier League goals as well. Pretty sure he will have scored against us outside of the Premier League as well. 

Away at Bolton on Boxing Day still haunts me.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

57 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I was also too young to really remember Heskey breaking through but to be fair he was definitely more than a bit better than Jason Roberts, for all of Heskey's faults. Back during Heskey's career 2 up front were common and he was an excellent foil for the likes of Owen through his unselfish play, he could bring the ball into his body and link play much better than Roberts who had as poor a first touch as you will see at that level.

Roberts still had a better touch than Gally.

[philipl]

That 4-2 Leicester win saw Heskey produce one of the most complete centre forward displays I have ever seen from a centre forward. Heskey was so fast powerful and direct. He forced a number of fine saves in addition to the two fine goals he scored.

He was so good that a little Rovers winger playing a blinder on his debut went nearly unnoticed. Damien Duff.

[roverandout]

21 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

That's the first I've heard of it too. He was explosive as a teenager so would have been an interesting signing.

My first real memory of Heskey is him running riot at Ewood on the final day of the '96/97 season. He scored twice in a 4-2 win for Leicester and the headlines afterwards were mainly "pesky Heskey" themed.

I've not looked it up, but I think there's a good chance that Heskey scored more goals against Rovers than against any other club during his career.

He always seemed to score against us no matter who he played for. This carried on right up until the final knockings of his career at Bolton, where he got an equaliser against Rovers on his debut for them in 2014.

Pesky Heskey? Indeed.

Remember that game.  He was frightening 

[roverandout]

His performances In the 5-1 Germany game was phenomenal 

Edited March 28, 2023 by roverandout

[Upside Down]

9 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Don't really get the Heskey love-in here. Always thought he was pretty shit. Admittedly he was a beast on his day, but there were never enough of those. I don't recall him when he started out, I was a bit young. But Jim describing him as 'a top class, ready-made replacement' for Shearer makes me wonder if Jim has started smoking crack in the mornings. What an insult to Shearer! Heskey was more of a slightly better Jason Roberts. Muscle and hustle but a pretty shite finisher. Granted we bought a load of crap up front after Shearer, but the magical answer would in no way have been Emile fucking Heskey. Better than what we bought, granted.

Every time he was linked with us later in his career, I got very nervous it would actually happen, and glad when it didn't. All of this is in spite of the fact that I saw him menace us numerous times, it was almost like he hated us. But I also saw Ostenstadt score against us regularly...probably more goals against us than for us when his career was done! Maybe some of you are basing it more off those games against us.

There have probably been less deserved 60+ cap hauls for England, but it's a short list.

Also, the story above, if true, is a sickener. We were willing to pay 1 million for a 16 yr old Heskey in 94, but not willing to pay slightly more (think it was meant to be 1.5 mill?) to sign a young Zidane? Fuck me we got that wrong!

100%

He was getting picked for England ahead of Matt Jansen simply because he played for Liverpool.

I always thought of him as a donkey and it really used to piss me off when he scored against us. My endearing memory of him is him taking numerous fresh air shots.

He may have had a lot of potential as a young player but he never came anywhere close to realising it.

To mention him in the same breath as Shearer or Cole is absolutely ludicrous and incredibly disrespectful to some of the actual greats of the game.

[ben_the_beast]

10 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Don't really get the Heskey love-in here. Always thought he was pretty shit. Admittedly he was a beast on his day, but there were never enough of those. I don't recall him when he started out, I was a bit young. But Jim describing him as 'a top class, ready-made replacement' for Shearer makes me wonder if Jim has started smoking crack in the mornings. What an insult to Shearer! Heskey was more of a slightly better Jason Roberts. Muscle and hustle but a pretty shite finisher. Granted we bought a load of crap up front after Shearer, but the magical answer would in no way have been Emile fucking Heskey. Better than what we bought, granted.

Every time he was linked with us later in his career, I got very nervous it would actually happen, and glad when it didn't. All of this is in spite of the fact that I saw him menace us numerous times, it was almost like he hated us. But I also saw Ostenstadt score against us regularly...probably more goals against us than for us when his career was done! Maybe some of you are basing it more off those games against us.

There have probably been less deserved 60+ cap hauls for England, but it's a short list.

Also, the story above, if true, is a sickener. We were willing to pay 1 million for a 16 yr old Heskey in 94, but not willing to pay slightly more (think it was meant to be 1.5 mill?) to sign a young Zidane? Fuck me we got that wrong!

I'm not the best to comment as my memory is pretty vague, but my memory when he broke onto the scene was that he was raw, fearless and powerful. 

At that age he was so strong and so fast. The speed faded as he got older. But the other thing which faded for me was his style of finishing. He just put his foot through the ball and leathered it. As well as his power, that's where the Shearer comparison comes from.

[roverandout]

I think  Shearer having kenny to learn from was huge. Had heskey  been under kenny's tutelage it would have made a vast difference 

Edited March 28, 2023 by roverandout

[bluebruce]

5 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I think it was  Shearer having kenny to learn from. If heskey had been under kenny's tutelage it would have made a vast difference 

Shearer was unstoppable for us from day one. With all respect to Kenny, I think Big Al was going to the top no matter what. I don't know how much of a player-moulder Dalglish was, it was Harford always talked about as the brains on the training ground.

[Upside Down]

I remember at one point where Jansen was undeservedly being left out of the England squad the reasoning was that he'd only scored one league goal at that point in the season. This was totally ignoring the fact that he was doing everything but score in most games.

Hesky however was an immediate pick despite only scoring one league goal at that point in the season and was playing like the donkey he was week in week out. He may have got 64 caps for England but there is no way he deserved to get that many.