Words matter. These are the best Emile Heskey Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Its easy to underestimate how much scrutiny players are under in England. Look at someone like Wayne Rooney – having to deal with it since he was 16.
After 20-plus years of looking purely from an individuals point of view as a player, now I have to look at it from a coachs perspective, getting into players heads, delivering my message in the right way so that what I’m telling them ends up getting translated out on the pitch.
As a No9, when youre up front on your own, your job is to keep the defence as far back as possible. Why? Because that gives more space to the No10.
I was lucky enough to have Tony Cottee when I was at Leicester, who was a senior pro at the time and would give me advice on certain things and it does help.
When you ask any player when they enjoyed their football, it was before the politics – when they just played, never thought about it.
When you went to Old Trafford, you feared what was going to happen.
Nothing ever comes easy. I have been playing this game since I left school at 16, I’d rather carry on as long as possible.
No one should have to put up with someone screaming in their face. Theres got to be a better way of getting the best out of people.
Every striker wants to score more goals but as a target man I’ve always taken great delight in bringing other players into the game.
And for me, you get the best out of yourself when the pressure is on. You want to play in cup finals and important games, those important games are the pressure games, because you have to win them.
When you leave school and go into an academy, you understand its about what you contribute to the team. What stuck with me was, win your own battle and help your mate.
I wouldnt mind getting into coaching at some stage.
When you talk about target men, midfielders dont like when people hide; they want you to be showing for it, hbeing a team olding the ball up, passing it and moving around.
I left Birmingham for Wigan because I was impressed with what Paul Jewell was doing, but I ended up back with the gaffer at Villa.
Critics are going to be critics, people are always going to get on your back, but as long as you go out there and do your job, then that’s all you can do.
But I loved my time with Liverpool – they were great times, fun times and emotional times.
Do your badges everyone tells me. Yeah, but badges wont get you a job. You could have the most educated coach sitting at home, you still have to be given the opportunity. And I know a lot of people arent getting those opportunities. Which is sad.
At Liverpool and England I formed a great partnership with Michael Owen who played off me with great success and in more recent times Wayne Rooney carried out a similar role.
My childhood was spent in a poorish neighbourhood in Leicester so that makes you cherish money more than if youd had a lot.
After playing 21 years in football its difficult to just do nothing, so Im just trying to keep as busy as possible.
Ive never been one for having a huge number of fast cars. The fastest one I ever had was a Porsche 911 and I never really drove it.
I watched players getting really battered by the coach and their head just goes down, they dont want to play, theyre not enjoying it. Back then theyd say: that shows mental weakness. No, you were just horrible.
