....but will it make gt3 happy?

[garcia]

so martin o'neill is signing heskey for 4 million. while i am obviously relieved that liverpool have dodged this bullet, i wish he had joined another team.

i remember when heskey played for o'neill at leicester he would rampage through defences like one of hannibal's war-elephants.

it would be typical now for his long-dormant mojo to rumble back to life and drive villa to the title.

[gt3]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Does this mean I've finally "arrived" on OTF?!

So long as no-one expects him to score goals it shouldn't be a problem and I reckon if anyone can get Heskey to "...rampage through defences like one of hannibal's war-elephants..." , it''s going to be MO'N isn't it?

The gt3 jury is out until 31/01 when I go to Villa Park to see our next home game, which funnily enough is v Wigan.

[Ray de Galles]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Surely his role is to have the ball bounce off him to Young or Agbonlahor or distract defenders while they run past?

[gt3]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Absolutely HS

[Guest]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

I don't understand this signing at all.

[garcia]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

why not - he's a straight replacement for the seriously injured carew?

edit - maybe i should say long-term injured, seriously injured sounds too serious.

[Guest]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Instead of buying someone big who never scores, would it not have been better to buy someone big who grabs the occasional goal now and again?

Heskey has something like three league goals so far this season.

[Ray de Galles]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

vennegoor strokes wrote:

Instead of buying someone big who never scores, would it not have been better to buy someone big who grabs the occasional goal now and again?

For £3.5m? In January? With EPL experience and a history with the manager? Who are they missing out on?

It's a decent deal even if it just secures them fourth place this season.

[Guest]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

For £3.5m? In January? With EPL experience and a history with the manager?

So each of these things counts for more than the fact that the guy is one of the poorest finishers in the division?

[evilC]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

GT...

Are you familiar in any way with this thing called 'American football'? I think that Heskey has been brought in as what American football people would call 'a blocking back', in order to 'lead-block'* for people like Ashley Young.

(That's lead as in 'taking the lead' ...not as in 'hit over the head with a lead pipe'. I can just understand there being some confusion, under the circumstances, that's all.)

[Ray de Galles]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

vennegoor strokes wrote:

For £3.5m? In January? With EPL experience and a history with the manager?

So each of these things counts for more than the fact that the guy is one of the poorest finishers in the division?

What counts is that he is plugging a hole in their team who have a very specific system and a manager who knows him well thinks he can help the team keep scoring.

They could have spent £20m on a player who would need far more time to adapt to the league or the system and with a better scoring record but this seems an expedient deal.

I get immensely frustrated by non-scoring strikers at my own club and managers' and team-mates' excuses that "they lead the line well and do a lot of work the fans don't see" but I think this is a case where it might be true. If I was a Villa supporter I don't think I'd be rushing down to the ground to greet him but I wouldn't be upset about it either.

[Twisted Sister]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Heskey is my favourite player in the Prem. He’s like a Devon White with international caps.

[evilC]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

How long is this contract for?

If Heskey helps Villa into Europe, will he then see much action in such a specific system, should Carew return to resume his role?

[Guest]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Surely Villa had a lot more than only £3.5m to spend on a new striker.

I wonder if O'Neill bought him to stop Benitez getting him.

[dotmund]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

I think this is a terrific bit of business. Emile Heskey is one of the most underrated players in the Premier League. There's not a club out there who couldn't benefit from having him in their team.

[Ray de Galles]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Saxon and Devon White in one day, I love TS.

[Ray de Galles]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

vennegoor strokes wrote:

Surely Villa had a lot more than only £3.5m to spend on a new striker.

I wonder if O'Neill bought him to stop Benitez getting him.

I think they probably would have backed MoN with whatever funds he wanted within reason and crucially, this is obviously what he wanted.

Genuine question, if you were him who would you have signed (likely candidates only) to fill the gap in their squad?

[Antepli Ejderha]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

vennegoor strokes wrote:

Surely Villa had a lot more than only £3.5m to spend on a new striker.

I wonder if O'Neill bought him to stop Benitez getting him.

I think that you may have hit the nail on the head here, well this is one of the reasons, Carew is injured, O'Neil knows what he is getting and the guy is a great nuisance value who will take the pressure of those around him, however 3.5million does sound steep but if it secures them fourth place it's a bargain.

[Guest]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

That's a bit of an impossible question to answer, because I don't have an exhaustive list of who's available for sale and who isn't.

If Villa wanted a bustling striker who would be likely to score some goals, they could put in a bid for somebody like, I dunno, Obafemi Martins or Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink or Aiyegbeni Yakubu or Amr Zaki or Kenwyne Jones. Any of those people would be a better bet than Heskey.

Just been looking at Heskey's stats and he does indeed have three goals this season, one of which was the fourth in a 5-0 win against Hull.

[Ray de Galles]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

vennegoor strokes wrote:

That's a bit of an impossible question to answer, because I don't have an exhaustive list of who's available for sale and who isn't.

If Villa wanted a bustling striker who would be likely to score some goals, they could put in a bid for somebody like, I dunno, Obafemi Martins or Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink or Aiyegbeni Yakubu or Amr Zaki or Kenwyne Jones. Any of those people would be a better bet than Heskey.

Just been looking at Heskey's stats and he does indeed have three goals this season, one of which was the fourth in a 5-0 win against Hull.

Martins - Surely quite similar to Young/Agbonlahaor - injured for at least a month. What would he cost?

Yakubu - out for the season

JVoH - good call, that one. What would Celtic need to let him go , do you reckon?

Zaki/Jones - I don't think there is a hope in hell of getting either away from their current clubs (I'd imagine Wigan have paid a loan fee for him for all season).

I know those are names off the top of your head but it's just not that easy to see who MoN is missing. He's done a pragmatic deal very much focussed on the next 4 months and getting a CL place.

[Guest]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

I didn't know Yakubu was injured.

Martins would probably be something like £7m-£8m at the moment. There's no way he's similar to Ashley Young, he's a muscly striker and Young's a fast winger.

Celtic paid £3.4m for JVOH but would be looking for a bit more than that, maybe £6m. The only thing about him is that every 3-4 months he gets an injury which keeps him out for five or six weeks.

I suppose Heskey has to be better than Marlon Harewood, but that's no yardstick.

[Outside Agent]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

Non-big four club chasing Champions League spot purchases cumbersome forward man in hope that he provides greater physical presence up front, assisting more skillful team-mates.

It's got Gregorz Rasiak to Spurs in 2005/06 written all over it.

[ale]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

excellent buy for Villa...cant believe the price tag is being questioned...for that amount youre not getting a guaranteed goalscorer but Heskey never has been one anyway...what he offers is a difficult afternoon for defenders from which fellow strikers can profit...

[garcia]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

vennegoor of hesselink is a crock. martins is about five foot seven. heskey is a better option than any of the players VS named except kenwyne jones, who would cost about four times as much.

[Guest]

....but will it make gt3 happy?

What has Martins' height got to do with it? Do you want your strikers to be really tall and bump into opposition defenders, or do you want them to score a few fucking goals once in a while and win you some matches?