Football
Emile Heskey exclusively to William Hill: “Antoine Semenyo is a very good player, but it would be difficult to replace Salah”.
Emile Heskey talks exclusively to William Hill
Former Liverpool, Aston Villa and England striker Emile Heskey speaks exclusively to William Hill about a number of current topics in football right now. Emile shares his view of Mo Salah’s comments post match v Leeds also how they can progress from here onwards. Emile shares his view on title predictions and all time 5 a side team.
Can I just ask you what you’ve made of the whole Mohamed Salah saga?
Emile: Well, it’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it? I’m from an era where a lot of your dirty laundry gets sorted out behind closed doors. It’s an interesting one because I’ve seen far worse, that nothing comes out. And then this could have been dealt with better. You’re talking about one of the best ever players to play in the Premier League, talking about one of Liverpool’s best ever players, and it could have just been dealt with a lot better.
During your years at Liverpool and just really throughout your entire career, have you ever experienced a situation where there’s been such a public breakdown in relationship between a star player and the manager?
Emile: No, not in my time, to be honest with you. I can’t say there was one. I know Stevie G talks about a time when Suarez was at Liverpool, but I was gone by then. But no, I haven’t seen one that has publicly played out in this way, to be honest. Look, a lot goes on behind the doors, behind the scenes, and a lot of the stuff gets handled behind the scenes. Ideally, this would have been the same, but it hasn’t been that way. So it’s been a It’s a bit of a tricky one, isn’t it? But generally, things like this get handled behind the scenes.
If Mo Salah was to leave in January, Liverpool have been linked heavily with Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth, if they were to bring him in as that replacement for Mo, would that be the best thing for Liverpool at this moment in time?
Emile: I don’t know about the best thing for Liverpool, to be honest with you. Again, when you’re talking about a player that’s scored a ridiculous amount of goals and he still potentially could continue doing so, is that a fair replacement? I think Antoine Semenyo is a very, very good player. I think he’s shown that he’s Premier League elite, and he shows that he can score goals. He probably fits better in a system that Slot wants to play as well. But you’re still talking about one of the best ever goal scorers in the Premier League history. You’re talking about replacing that. That is a difficult one to replace.
Having spent so many years in a football dressing rooms, these sorts of disagreements and arguments are actually pretty common place from what you said?
Emile; Yeah, they are. They’re literally every single day. If you don’t have an argument every single day, you think there’s something wrong because you’ve got to have a little bit of a disagreement. We all have differences, don’t we? So So you’ve got to have a little bit of a disagreement. But when I was playing every single day, nothing ever comes out. It’s managed. And again, players need to do that as well at times.
Final one of Mo, where do we go next? How do you think this is going to all end?
Emile: Well, he’s off to African Cup of Nations So that’s January, Everyone’s talking about the possibility of him leaving in January. That’s a possibility we don’t know. For someone of the stature and the player that he is, there’s always a route back in. But the thing is, there needs to be a mediator. They need a mediator and sit down and discuss and come to some agreement and some understanding the way that you’re going to move forward. My thing is this all could have been sorted if you just sat down and spoke. You can’t just drop the biggest and one of the best players in the world and not expect him to say something if you haven’t said anything before. And, he’s not a kid, so it’s not just one thing and then leave him alone. It’s continuous. It’s continuous dialogue. Because as well, especially when you get into the senior age, when you get to the past 30, you actually don’t mind them actually asking you certain things and sit down and ask you your opinion and looking at you from a coaches point of view as well.
We’re looking at the Premier League now, obviously the title race. How many teams do you think are in the title race as we look at it now?
Emile:. I’d probably say two. I’d say Arsenal and Man City. I think Arsenal have got the squad, but have they got the know-how? I think City have the know-how. City have the… not the heart, but the understanding of what it needs to get over the line. They’ve done it time and time again. We’ve seen Arsenal falter a couple of times. But City managed to know how to get it over the line. So I’m swaying a little bit more towards them.
If you had an all-time five a side team from players you played with, who would be in it?
Emile: I’d go Rio (Ferdinand) and Sol (Campbell) at the back. I’d go Stevie (Gerrard) and (Paul) Scholes in the middle and Michael Owen up front
