Heskey rues Anfield exit

Emile Heskey admits the disappointment of having to leave Liverpool in 2004 still rankles with him.

The powerful striker was offloaded to Birmingham that year after struggling for consistency during a four-year stay at Anfield.

He had is moments on Merseyside, bagging 22 goals during the 2000/01 season, but the highs were outnumbered by the lows.

He has reignited his career of late, forcing his way back into the England set-up, but has revealed that he would have loved to have been given more time to prove himself with Liverpool.

Lying

"It was a disappointment to leave Anfield," he told the The Sunday Times.

"Liverpool are such a big club. Anybody who tells you he wants to leave a club like that is lying.

"But, if your time has run its course, it's no use hanging on."

A move to Wigan in 2006 has seen Heskey win a host of new admirers, allowing him to rekindle his international career.

The 30-year-old featured in both of England's recent 2010 World Cup qualifiers, against Andorra and Croatia, helping the Three lions pick up maximum points.

However, a commanding 4-1 victory in Zagreb was marred by vile racist chanting from the crowd aimed towards Heskey.

Horrible

The veteran front-man is experienced enough to shrug off the ignorance of a minority, but admits something has to be done to eradicate such occurrences from the game.

"When I made a challenge, which I got booked for, it felt like the whole stand behind the goal we were attacking in the second half was doing it," he continued.

"When we kicked off again with the free kick it stopped, but for 10 or 20 seconds you could hear it, and it was horrible.

"We've had it before, in Spain and Slovakia, and if you think about it, you probably get it in places where they don't have many black players, or even black people, in the community. Not like England, which is multicultural.

"Over there, they are a long way behind us in that respect, and it's down to ignorance. At first I thought, 'What the hell is this?' But as soon as we kicked off again it went out of my head.

"When I was younger, I'd have been angrier, but the more you come across it, the more you're left thinking, 'What can you do?' It's up to the authorities to take action. We've reported it, so let's see what happens."

 

Source – Sky Sports