Birmingham take the arm off Wigan's Dave Whelan

therecklessone

Brum accept £5.5m bid for Emile Heskey from Wigan

:eek:

£0.5m less than Liverpool paid for Bellamy...:D

vorbis

absolutely crazy bid. Dave Whelan must be on some seriously strong drugs.

mike65

Don't worry he'll be like he was at Leicester City again*

Mike.

*may not happen

Draupnir

In all fairness, that price seems mental, but he is an ideal replacement for Jason Roberts, very similar type of player and I think Heskey will fit in quite well with the Wigan system.

At 2.5 -> 3 million, this would have been a perfect bit of business.

Chucky the tree

Wigan are like the chelsea of the lower teams. Everyone knows if wigan make a bid you can milk a few extra million from them because they are desperate.

Lemlin

That's unreal. I was worried there that Blackburn would get him when they were linked with him.

therecklessone

I do think he'll do a job @ Wigan, but the price is nonsense. I don't think he should be judged on last season.

ziggy

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gimmick

^^^

Pick a season then- he has been useless in them all!!

Poppycock. Heskey bashing is always easy, and some would say fun too, but look at the Liverpool treble season - 2000-2001, see how may goals, and assists he was involved in. His record with a horrible Leicester team, whose main objective was to kill games before they started was quite impressive, and his first with Brum wasn't too bad. He has also scored at international level in a restricted England set up, which has relied on long balls everytime. In short, Heskey has never been given a chance in a team which actually plays football. Now Wigan arent exactly the free-ist flowing team there is, but perhaps Emile will flourish there. Remember he wasn't exactly 100% fit at all times last season, and that team had a different starting 11 almost every week. Statements like the one Ive quoted are laughable. Sure he isnt world class, or even top quality, but by English standards, he is one of the better ones.

Now to change track somewhat, the price for him is ridiculous, but that is just indicative of how the English transfer market works at present. Average players, going from one average team to another, for stupidly big money. Is it any wonder coaches are going abroad to bring in equally average players for one-tenth of the prices the pay to another English club?

ziggy

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Lemlin

His record for Brum is actually his best, 1 goal in every 3 games or so. Terrible record for Liverpool.

therecklessone

Lemlin wrote:

His record for Brum is actually his best, 1 goal in every 3 games or so. Terrible record for Liverpool.

'cept those figures posted are wrong.

http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=3453

16 goals in 78 appearances @ Brum (14/68 league, 1/5 FA Cup, 1/5 League Cup)

ziggy

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Rikand

Lemlin wrote:

That's unreal. I was worried there that Blackburn would get him when they were linked with him.

Aye, we were lucky there!

therecklessone

ziggy67 wrote:

Sorry

I got those figures from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Heskey


Anyway, your figures just make him look even worse

Context is everything.

Heskey's first season at Birmingham saw him score 10 league goals in 34 appearances, better than his average career league goals record. His second season, Birmingham's relegation season, saw him score 4 in 34.

For comparison, take Chris Sutton (I'm sure you're aware of his scoring record...;) ). 86 goals in 199 appearances @ Celtic in all competitions (effectively 1 goal in every 3 matches), he got 1 goal in 10 PL appearances for Brum (and 0 in 1 FA Cup game) last season.

Heskey's problem is in part caused by his willingness to play anywhere on the pitch. he played large parts of his Liverpool career on the wing under Houllier (and the same for Engalnd at times). He's not a prolific goal scorer, but then neither is Kevin Davies @ Bolton (Davies has a worse goals/game ratio, approx 1/5) and Davies is a relatively effective player in the Bolton team.

Heskey's best season at Liverpool was the treble-winning season, when he netted 22 in all competitions: source

Like I said, he'll do a job @ Wigan, just not for that price.

BaZmO*

Chucky the tree wrote:

Wigan are like the chelsea of the lower teams. Everyone knows if wigan make a bid you can milk a few extra million from them because they are desperate.

Didn't Paul Jewel say that he had an awful time trying to attract players to Wigan last season despite having a chairman that was willing to spend big. Probably shot himself in the foot with that comment.

Lemlin

Wigan's problem is that their best players are jumping ship. They lost Bullard for a small fee and now Jason Roberts too. Players they have yet to replace.

If Heskey cost 5 million, Roberts is a snip for Blackburn at the reported 1 to 2 million. He's a better player than Heskey.

johnos

Lemlin wrote:

Wigan's problem is that their best players are jumping ship. They lost Bullard for a small fee and now Jason Roberts too. Players they have yet to replace.

If Heskey cost 5 million, Roberts is a snip for Blackburn at the reported 1 to 2 million. He's a better player than Heskey.

You get precisely 68.75 Eamon Zayed's for £5.5, going by the rumoured fee Drogheda have paid for him.
This player would have 137.5 (!) legs, would work tirelessly through the season, never getting sick or injured. He may not have scored many goals lately, but with Wigan's superior service to their strike force, he could doubtlessly 'do a job'. With his talents properly marshalled, you could also save a fortune on budget items like stewarding and manning of turnstiles, and he could even help to boost supporter numbers at unglamorous away fixtures.
No-brainer!

edit: this post stupidy assumes parity between € and £. Of course, you could buy even more Eamon Zayed's -- 99.3, to be precise!

Unearthly

Shocking transfer

Can't remember the last time I heard of a transfer and thought to myself "what the f*ck"

iregk

The reckless one, its all very well and good quoting heskeys figures against other players but there is one huge flaw in your argument. All players you mentioned are also crap!!!

zAbbo

Wigan lost Jason Roberts due to the pathetic contract they offered him.

He didn't budge and has rightly secured himself a deal to a club with European prospects.

Roberts was nothing short of brilliant last season

Dave Larkin

Chucky the tree wrote:

Wigan are like the chelsea of the lower teams. Everyone knows if wigan make a bid you can milk a few extra million from them because they are desperate.

I couldn't agree more. Good point, man. It will be intriguing to see how Heskey does at Wigan. They may need to bolster their strike force a bit more. They don't have a lot of strength in depth in terms of strikers, do they?

therecklessone

iregk wrote:

The reckless one, its all very well and good quoting heskeys figures against other players but there is one huge flaw in your argument. All players you mentioned are also crap!!!

None are top 4 quality, but none are what you deem "crap"

Kevin Davies is probably 2nd on the team sheet for Bolton after Jaaskelainen. Bolton are a steady mid table side, have been for years. That's where Wigan want to be.

Sutton's scoring record @ Blackburn (just under 1 in every 2.5 games) and Celtic (1 every 3 games) is all the more impressive given his versatility (if IIRC, he spent an entire season at CB for Blackburn, and played in defence/midfield for Celtic a number of times)

Heskey won't score 20+ goals for Wigan, and he is not worth £5.5m, but he is not crap.

Rikand

therecklessone wrote:

Sutton's scoring record @ Blackburn (just under 1 in every 2.5 games) and Celtic (1 every 3 games) is all the more impressive given his versatility (if IIRC, he spent an entire season at CB for Blackburn, and played in defence/midfield for Celtic a number of times)

B est Centre Back we had too! He could easily have been in the England Team if he'd played at Centre Back all the time!

Lemlin

therecklessone wrote:

None are top 4 quality, but none are what you deem "crap"

Kevin Davies is probably 2nd on the team sheet for Bolton after Jaaskelainen. Bolton are a steady mid table side, have been for years. That's where Wigan want to be.

Sutton's scoring record @ Blackburn (just under 1 in every 2.5 games) and Celtic (1 every 3 games) is all the more impressive given his versatility (if IIRC, he spent an entire season at CB for Blackburn, and played in defence/midfield for Celtic a number of times)

Heskey won't score 20+ goals for Wigan, and he is not worth £5.5m, but he is not crap.

Sutton's performances at Blackburn were usually a mix of the fantastic followed by the poor. I think there was two seasons that he scored 25+ (including Premiership winning season) and then two seasons where scored less than 10 goals.

wheres me jumpa

5.5 is crazy for me. I have never once looked at Heskey and considered him a top premiership striker. However I would have thought the same about Roberts before last season so maybe WIgan can get their moneys worth.