Former Reds striker Emile Heskey has told FourFourTwo that he should not have left Anfield in 2004, despite the big-money arrival of Djibril Cisse pushing him down the pecking order.
Heskey spent four years at Anfield from 2000 following his club record move from boyhood club Leicester, and went on to win a historic treble in his first season on Merseyside.
The ex-England striker was a regular under Gerard Houllier throughout his four years at Liverpool, but things changed in the summer of 2004 when the club paid Auxerre £14.5m for Frenchman Cisse.
Despite the bad news, however, Heskey insists he should have stayed put and not joined Birmingham so hastily.
Speaking in the November 2018 issue of FourFourTwo, out now, the 40-year-old says: “If I could change one decision in my career it would probably be to stay at Liverpool for longer – they won the Champions League the next season!
“I had a year left on my contract at Liverpool but Rick Parry [then CEO] told me that Djibril Cisse was coming in and I wouldn’t be playing. I told him that was OK and I’d stay and fight for my place. But he said, ‘No, Cisse has got to play’.
“So I had to move on, really, although looking back I think I would have played. They accepted a bid from Birmingham and that was that. But I loved my time with Liverpool – they were great times, fun times and emotional times.
“The highest we ever finished in the Premier League was second but we won all of those cups, which was great – I couldn’t have asked for any more.”
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Read more from Emile Heskey’s revealing career reflective in the November 2018 issue of FourFourTwo, out in shops and on iPad/iPhone from Wednesday, October 3. The enigma of Paul Pogba is our latest cover story, featuring exclusive interviews with those who know him well. Elsewhere, there are exclusive interviews with Kenedy and Glenn Murray, the mad history of set-pieces, cult teams, Aaron Lennon’s superfan and much, much more. Grab yours today!
Joe was the Deputy Editor at FourFourTwo until 2022, having risen through the FFT academy and been on the brand since 2013 in various capacities.
By weekend and frustrating midweek night he is a Leicester City fan, and in 2020 co-wrote the autobiography of former Foxes winger Matt Piper – subsequently listed for both the Telegraph and William Hill Sports Book of the Year awards.
