Emile Heskey

[Risso]

He is absolutely fucking useless.

I don't care if he tries. That alone is nowhere near enough.

The worrying thing is how many times McLeish mentioned him in his post match interview.  To listen to him, you'd think that Heskey's introduction marked a barnstorming second half in which we were incredibly unlucky not to equalise.  We were marginally less bad, but all you can really say about Heskey is that he tries hard without ever looking like scoring.  Plus he always, ALWAYS does something completely inept that makes people laugh at him.

He's marginally more useful than Jermaine Jenas though, has there ever been a more pointless loan signing, that was destined not to work from the very start?

[PaulWinch again]

I was worried by Mcleish's remarks, but not surprised. We were very marginally better in the second half but I never believed we'd score.

[TheSandman]

He's probably trying to justify Hesk's return to the side for the Bolton game.

[Monty]

He really is terrible. Alright with his back to goal, knocking a couple down to a fellow player, but every other time the ball went his way he did something comically poor.

Thing is, I don't blame him. Put my nan out there and I'm sure she'd try her hardest. It's the fault of the man playing him.

[Greg N'Ash]

to be fair we've been playing with him in the team for donkey's years. You can't really point a finger in his direction about the decline of the team because he was shite even when we were doing ok

[unclefabio]

[Greg N'Ash]

heheheh. See thats's ace. He's surpassed the MFH level of shiteness where you laugh at him because he's so bad, and hit a new uber shite level where you actually appreciate there's some skill in being that bobbins

[JUAN PABLO]

why the Eck ,isnt Heskey laying the ball off there .

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm sure I remember Savo having a shot from a similar position back in the day. It went backwards for a throw in and nearly ended up in our half.

[Greg N'Ash]

the best bit is the ball boy. I reckon he'd started going to collect the ball before Ivanhoe had hit it

[brontebilly]

I'm actually wondering was Harewood better in a Villa shirt?

Seriously though again if we had a proper CE or anyone with a brain on the board, that signing would never have been approved in the first place.

We need to come to a mutual agreement with him and release him asap.

[Stu]

I'm actually wondering was Harewood better in a Villa shirt?

He was. He scored an absolute belter against Reading at their place. I'm struggling to think of one thing that Heskey has done that comes close.

[brontebilly]

I'm actually wondering was Harewood better in a Villa shirt?

He was. He scored an absolute belter against Reading at their place. I'm struggling to think of one thing that Heskey has done that comes close.

Heskey got a great winner at Wolves last season. Decent goal on his debut.

Aside from that he has been an impostor of the highest order. His signing was the beginning of the end for MON too.

[brian green]

I think the reason why there was a marginal improvement when he came on was because he was getting on to the end of the hoofball from our back four.

The hoofball is the very root of our problems - very few attempts on goal, very few victories, late concessions of goals, horrible ugly football, falling crowds and lack of team spirit.

The glaringly simple fact of the matter is that we have two England internationals up front who need the ball played to them on the ground quickly and in the channels.   What we are getting all the time is the ball in the air over the midfield.

Dunne, Collins and Warnock saw off Houllier and are living the comfort zone with the aid and comfort of a soul mate in the form of Hutton.   Collectively they are not within a million miles of what a Premiership back four should be.

When Heskey came on we started to play a very poor form of Route One but we can't even play that very well.   John Carew or Marlon Harewood would have had the same effect.

The probable reason McLeish spoke at such length about Heskey is the draft extension to his contract which he has in the top drawer of his desk.

What you do when you sign managers and players who come to your club with baggage and between them McLeish and Heskey have a Pickfords load, you unsettle and demoralize the rest of the players.    McLeish probably feels an empathy with Heskey because they both have been deeply unpopular at Villa Park and have been foisted on the fans.

As the relegation battles loom the first name on the team sheet every week will be Emile Heskey and that bit of a flicker of improvement we saw yesterday in the second half against a very poor Man U side will be all the justification McLeish will need for it.

[Steve R]

I couldn't agree more Brian.

Whilst the roots of the problem lie with MON's poor signings, McLeish should be getting more out of this team.

I doubt he'll do anything other than try to get them playing better route one, which with a 4-3-3 formation will mean that Bent will have to go.

Somewhere along the line O'Neil had to go, the timing of the departure was a big blow, but was survivable. Maybe the downgrade from Houllier to McLeish  was the bigger kick in the unmentionables.

We're not in a state of transition, more one of flux.