Liverpool FC Forum

[Koptite]

im not sure where he will fit in if Keane and torres are fit and playing well but hey good for the squad and would give us a different option up front

[Scottbot]

I haven't really read much of this thread tbh and I pretty much dismissed the idea of Heskey at first glance but we definately need to bring in a target-man of some description. Some great crosses came in from both full-backs tonight but there was simply no-one to attack them. We've been sussed at Anfield and desperately need another option. All the opposing team has to do is sit deep, be organised, deny us any space to tun into, win their fair share of 2nd phase balls and force us wide. It's all pretty easy for them to be honest. The only way we were going to score tonight was from a long shot or a set-piece, unfortunately our shooting was awfull and they defended superbly from set-plays.

I'm not saying Heskey is the only answer but with Torres out (and maybe in and out all season) he (or someone like him) is a must. At the moment we don't have an out-ball if we want (or have) to kick it long, we don't have a player who can back into his marker and hold the ball on the edge and opposing defences need not worry too much about crosses. At least a Heskey type would force them out a bit further and give the likes of Keane a little more space to maneuver.

I'm guessing Heskey would cost £3-5 million seen as his contract is up in the summer. I'd love Santa Cruz from Blackburn. I was VERY impressed with him yesterday, he's a big lad, he uses the ball intelligently, holds it up, is great in the air and has a touch of class about him. Gudjonsen has been mooted about and he's another i'd like, he's big, strong, skillful and versatile. Unfortunately both of these would probably cost more than we have

[bigmick]

I just couldn't have Heskey Scott. The memories of his last spell at Anfield are just too painful (with that one in the dying seconds against the Mancs where he fell on his erse the absolute biscuit taker). Santa Cruz is a good shout, while if Keane really didn't look like working out we could consider a swap (with some cash thrown in) for one of Spurs's big fellas? I know I'll probs get slaughtered but stranger things have happened. Either Pavlechenco or Bent would fit the bill, with a slight personal preference for the english bloke who I've always had a it of time for.

DISCLAIMER-I'M NOT SAYING I WANT TO SELL KEANE/THAT I THINK HE'S SH!T/THAT I THINK DARREN BENT IS PELE-I AM SIMPLY THINKING OUT LOUD.

[Lando_Griffin]

The thing, the LAUGHABLE thing, is that when people are bemoaning the ability of talented players, some prune comes up with the absolute nugget of bringing a known donkey back into the fold, several years after said donkey's peak.

Why don't we ask Pele to dust off his plimsolls and get Nobby Stiles in at fullback?

If Kuyt, Keane, Morientes, Cisse, Voronin and Ngog aren't good enough, what on Earth makes you think a failed Olympic diver with all the balance of a Kiwi fruit will bring anything to the team?

[DanAn]

I think a target man would be great but we can do better than Heskey

[maypaxvobiscum]

bring back Voronin!!! no im serious. i liked the look of him when he first came he seemed to score goals i recall. honestly, i rate Voronin. im hoping to see him being given a chance.

[Scottbot]

while if Keane really didn't look like working out we could consider a swap (with some cash thrown in) for one of Spurs's big fellas? I know I'll probs get slaughtered but stranger things have happened. Either Pavlechenco or Bent would fit the bill, with a slight personal preference for the english bloke who I've always had a bit of time for.

I see what you are saying but I have got reservations about Bents' ability to play with his back to goal, in that I don't think he can do it. He can certainly head a ball but again, finanacially we don't have the money and i'd prefer to keep Robbie at the club. Rocky would be a vracking signing, but how much are we talking for the player? £12-15 million or more if City get involved. We simply couldn't afford him. The only other option I could see is a swap involving Robbie Kean and Kenwyne Jones at Sunderland. Keane nearly signed for Sunderland a few seasons ago but didn't want to go so far north (i believe) and Rafa is known to be a fan of Jones so it's a possibility. Must admit I like Jones having seen him play live for the Saints on a couple of occasions.

[burjennio]

santa cruz would be a great signing, jones is like heskey mark 2, pace, and strength but couldnt hit the house from the drive way

[Scottbot]

Surely we are going to sign another forward during this transfer window? The lack of even tenuous links with available players is a worry considering the window is drawing to a close. We DESPERATELY need a Big Man to give us another option up-front, desperately. I gather there isn't much money for transfers so i really can't se a better option out there than Heskey. What would it cost to buy him now? £3 million? surely no more. I know he isn't everyone's cup of tea but please, if you going to pour scorn over the idea (an so many have in this thread) why not attempt to actually offer an alternative. Teams are sitting so deep against us at Anfield and our forwarss have got very little space to work in. At least a big man would make them think twice about it (and we'd have a target for crosses - we don't at the moment do we?) and maybe bring them out a little to free up some room for the likes of Torres and Keane. The rumour mill seems to think Heskey will sign in the summer, id that's the case why wait?

It's folly if we don't buy someone + tantamount to giving up the title race in my eyes.

Taken from the DAILY MAIL (below)

Delay over Heskey return makes little sense in Liverpool's search for spark

Rafa Benítez's need to secure an effective strike partner for Fernando Torres makes the reticence to pursue the Wigan forward all the more bafflingComments (15) 
Wigan Athletic's Emile Heskey has scored just three goals in 20 Premier League appearances this season. Photograph: Jon Super/AP

There are good reasons for deploring the effects of the January transfer window, as Mark Hughes – of all people – and Gianfranco Zola have done in recent days. A shrewd mid-season acquisition, however, can represent a potent catalyst, which makes it all the stranger that Liverpool are apparently content to wait until the summer before turning their interest in Emile Heskey into a done deal.

After years of shuffling players like a pack of playing cards, Rafael Benítez seems finally close to settling on his most effective line-up, and Liverpool's improved performance in the Premier League this season is the most obvious dividend of his belated consistency. But amid the disappointment of conceding a late equaliser against Everton at Anfield last night, it was clear that the side's most urgent requirement, if they are to maintain a genuine challenge to Manchester United's title, is an effective partner for Fernando Torres.

Once again Robbie Keane played like a man haunted by a £20.3m transfer fee, failing to give the Spaniard the remotest semblance of support. It was Keane's 18th league appearance since his arrival from Tottenham in the summer, and although each of his five goals has been greeted as a turning point, he looked no more attuned to the expectations heaped upon him than he did on his debut.

Liverpool cannot hope to win the league for the first time since 1989-90 with a two-man front line in which only one is functioning, and nowhere else in the club's 35-strong first-team squad is there another player both equipped and prepared in terms of experience to step into the role, a lack which underlines the criticisms of Benítez's attitude to their Melwood academy made in Jamie Carragher's recent autobiography. Hence the interest in recalling a man bought by Gérard Houllier from Leicester City for £11m, then a club record, in 2000 and sold four years later to Birmingham City for just over half that amount.

As long ago as October it was apparent that Heskey would not be staying with Wigan Athletic, whom he joined in 2006 for £5.5m on a three-year contract, beyond this summer. The suggestion of Dave Whelan, the Wigan chairman, that they would be prepared to entertain a bid of around £4m was quickly amended by his manager, Steve Bruce, who said that only an "outrageous" offer would persuade the club to part with their highly regarded No9 halfway through the season. Earlier this month the player himself confirmed that he would be staying put until the end of a campaign in which the Latics currently occupy a highly satisfactory and potentially lucrative seventh place.

Heskey knows that if he waits until the summer, when his new club will be free of the need to pay a transfer fee, he will be at liberty to ask his agent to negotiate the sort of enhanced personal terms that made Steve McManaman a rich man when he left Anfield for Real Madrid in the summer of 1999. At 31, Heskey knows that whatever contract he signs this year will probably be his last of any consequence.

Benítez seems content to go along with Heskey's timetable, as does Martin O'Neill, who has also shown an interest on behalf of Aston Villa, where John Carew, his powerful Danish central striker, seems unlikely to return from injury until next season. Given that O'Neill presumably sees Heskey taking some of the weight off his brilliant young attackers, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young, as Villa attempt to consolidate their new position among the clubs in line for Champions League places, his decision to sit back and wait seems odd.

It is Benítez, however, who would most obviously stand to gain from an immediate injection of Heskey's qualities of power, intelligence and unselfishness into his front line, just as England benefited when the player was restored to the national team, first by Steve McClaren in 2007 and then, after he had recovered from a broken metatarsal, by Fabio Capello last year. For a centre-forward with a mere three goals to his name in 20 Premier League appearances this season, Heskey has a great deal to offer.

Perhaps it is not too far-fetched to draw a parallel with the case of Manchester United, who were drifting through their 26th year without a league title in December 1992 when Alex Ferguson, needing a striker to compensate for the loss of Dion Dublin, made a spur-of-the-moment inquiry about Eric Cantona and found himself with a player who, to his surprise, turned out to be the presiding spirit of a new era of unprecedented success at Old Trafford.

That, at one extreme, is what a mid-season gamble can achieve, and although there could hardly be two more different players or personalities than Cantona and Heskey, it is what, if Benítez continues to stay his hand in the 13 days that remain until the transfer window closes, Liverpool may be missing. And Heskey, too, might live to regret passing up perhaps his best chance of winning more than respect and a healthy bank balance.

[Reg]

What is disgraceful is despite having a 35 man squad and an academy full of europes finest youngsters, no tw@t can score a goal.

To be even linked with Carthorse Heskey shows you how we lost track of the plot.

[Scottbot]

To be even linked with Carthorse Heskey shows you how we lost track of the plot.

We need someone to come in and do some hard yards Reg, someone to rough a few defenders up, win some headers, make opposing back fours think twice about sitting in their own penalty box not having to worry about any crosses that might come their way. Heskey might not be everyone 's cup of tea but he can give you that, the truth is we need a bit of a cart-horse in the locker coz at the moment the locker is empty. Kuyt up-front on his own!? Give me strength. Heskey is the BEST on offer for the money we don't seem to have. Plus let's not pretend he was s..h..i...t the whole time he was at Anfield. One very good season, one decent season and then two sh...i...t seasons BUT he could come in and do a job for us this season.

[Kash_Mountain]

  not good enough for Liverpool FC.  We're trying to improve the team not take it back to the dark ages.

[Thingy]

Cheeky bid for Adriano on load wouldnt go a miss, doubt Mourinho would loan to us though.

[Reg]

To be even linked with Carthorse Heskey shows you how we lost track of the plot.

We need someone to come in and do some hard yards Reg, someone to rough a few defenders up, win some headers, make opposing back fours think twice about sitting in their own penalty box not having to worry about any crosses that might come their way. Heskey might not be everyone 's cup of tea but he can give you that, the truth is we need a bit of a cart-horse in the locker coz at the moment the locker is empty. Kuyt up-front on his own!? Give me strength. Heskey is the BEST on offer for the money we don't seem to have. Plus let's not pretend he was s..h..i...t the whole time he was at Anfield. One very good season, one decent season and then two sh...i...t seasons BUT he could come in and do a job for us this season.

I thought we paid lads tens and tens of thousands of pounds a week to do just that??

[Number 9]

I dont really wanna see Heskey back at LFC,but Im sure he'd be more effective than Keane!Saying that when you watch Keane at times you feel that Bellamy(much as i hate him) or Crouch would do a better job...two players long gone!
Im not sure what to make of Keane anymore.I always felt he would come good for us but Im starting to think he will never fit in.I would still persevere until the end of the season but (stating the obvious) this in and out of the team must stop.He needs a run in the team.I'd love rafa to give him 5 or 6 starts on the trot and play him the full 90.Then we can judge him proper and will know if he can fit in or if we are flogging a dead horse and our worst suspicions are confirmed!

If we sold Keane though and heaven forbid lost Nando again playing Heskey upfront alone or with Ngog does'nt exactly reek of goals galore.I suppose we could always play him with Babel,I doubt that combination would give too many defenders sleepless nights either!Oops forgot about Kuyt!!
I wonder if Chelsea would take Kuyt and Babel in a swap for Anelka?
You never know,I'd give it a blast..that Scolari fella is off his Fu*king head,he may just say yes!!