Daily Mirror Rafa Benitez will be allowed to buy two players next month – and he wants Emile Heskey back at Anfield as one of them. The Liverpool boss has come under sustained pressure following a dreadful first half of the season. But Benitez will be offered backing by the board, proof he still has a future at the club. Star striker Fernando Torres last night admitted the situation was bleak, as he said: “I think it is really difficult because I think we don’t have money to bring in the best players – and obviously we need players. “But if we can bring in quality players, it should be really positive for us.” Heskey scored 60 goals in four years at Liverpool before being sold in the summer of 2004 – a month before Benitez took over. With the World Cup looming and his starting position at Aston Villa far from guaranteed, the England striker could be attracted back to the club. Benitez admires Heskey’s unselfish approach and feels he could provide the perfect foil for Torres. Benitez has also looked at Ruud van Nistelrooy and Italy international Luca Toni as alternatives. He wants a wide player, and is considering a move for Celtic’s Aiden McGeady, available for about £8million. Also on the radar is Holland winger Eljero Elia, who could be prised away from Hamburg for £10m and Turkish flyer Arda Turan. Benitez may have up to £15m to spend as he allows up to four players to leave in the transfer window, with Ryan Babel chief among his saleable assets. He can also try to raise funds by selling Italy defender Andrea Dossena, Ukraine striker Andriy Voronin and Swiss full-back Philipp Degen. Liverpool have dismissed suggestions that Saudi tycoon Prince Faisal bin Fahd Bin Abdullah al Saud is close to agreeing a deal to buy a stake in the club. The member of the Saudi royal family owns the F6 marketing group and has been invited as a guest to Liverpool’s Boxing Day match with Wolves by owner George Gillett. But insiders claim no deal to sell any stake in the club is near, and the prince is not a serious contender to buy into Anfield. Christ sake do me a bloody favour. I suppose you could argue that Emile could/should have stayed as he was plan B, who sold him? Peter Crouch should have started as he was plan B. But he let them all go because he thought he had better options. Now this is a step backwards for me. Will we ever get any good news? It's been discussed before but it's surfaced again.
ah this deal better not go through, we off loaded that fool years ago and now rafa wants him back, look out baros rafas going to get you
Yeah was thinking the same myself Bobby but lets not let it get in the way of having a pop at our manager
Well would rather have David Villa but no much chance of anything like that happening, Heskey good worker and offers more than DNog and Voronin for a start, also be perfect partner for Torres and will get us stop playing the 1 upfront.
Oh god I hope not he is rubbish and one of our rivals rejects which makes it worse!!I really wish we had half decent scouts that could discover for example players like Cana for Sunderland instead of bringing back players that failed in the past,signing heskey would be a step backwards in my opinion.
perfect partner, i dont know should i laugh or cry......... work horse...... we have a kuyt all ready and 1s enough. like i said before
But Rafa changed Kuyt to a right midfielder now so can't see him being used upfront to often. I for one would rather have Heskey-Torres rather than Ngog-Torres or Voronin-Torres
he will cost next to nothing. hes a battering ram and would be good up front with torres. its prob short term aswel, i wouldnt mind if this transfer went through.
Square pegs in round holes again Rafa. Whe will you ever bloody learn? If you want a player to work the flanks then lets see someone like Mata, Young or Van der Vaart. We spend cash on these players then shift them out of position!!! I know we don't have the cash to buy the big names like Young but stop buying players and putting them in other positions. Since Rafa arrived we seen the likes of Aurelio, Dossena, Babel, Johnson, Skertel, Keane, Kuyt and many more fluff their lines out of position. Heskey will end up wide and yes he'll run up and down like a headless chicken but what he won't give us is real quality needed in a top club.
I am totally baffled by this thread. Even if Rafa did want Heskey (and I very much doubt this) back why would Villa want to sell him to a rival team considering that they have not go an enormous squad and he is doing a good job for them as a back up striker.