Emile Heskey has no regrets over referee ‘barge’ incident, wants Arsenal to ‘prove him wrong’ and reveals brutal Liverpool treatment

In the second part of an exclusive with Ladbrokes: Fanzone, former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey talked about the title race, barging into referee Mike Jones when playing for Aston Villa, his Anfield exit, Steven Gerrard and memories of Wigan’s ‘Great Escape’ on the final day of the 2006-7 season.

In part one he told us which teams will finish in the top four in the Premier League as well as giving his thoughts on Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gabriel Martinelli and life on Merseyside.

I hope Arsenal prove me wrong as I don’t want City winning the league

I think the title goes to City, to be honest. I do think Arsenal will be the ones to push them, but the only reason I’ll say they won’t win the league is because of the age of that squad. They’re a very young bunch and they’re still at such an early stage of their progression.

When their backs are against the wall and they drop a couple of points here and there, and they need to come out fighting, there are still question marks for me as to whether they’ve got that fight yet. Have they got that longevity? I don’t think so, right now.

Their manager Mikel Arteta is very young as well and even though he’s doing a fantastic job, he’s up against an experienced manager in Pep Guardiola in a title race, and I just think that will play a massive part in who sits at the top of the table come the end of the season.

If you’re asking me whether Arsenal can win the league, I’ll say no. But I really hope they prove me wrong. I don’t want City winning the league.

No regrets over referee ‘barge’

Heskey escaped a red card when he barged into referee Mike Jones during Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw with Wigan in the 2010-11 Premier League season, but he remains adamant he should have been given more protection.

I think when you’re getting elbowed on the back of your head four or five times, and you’re getting nothing from the referee, what would you do? The thing for me is that I’m a human like everyone else. I’m going to react the same way anyone else would, so if I’m getting elbowed, pushed and kicked left, right and centre, you can’t just let the referee get away without saying or doing anything about it. You’ve got to let him know. He’s got to accept that, as well. We’re all human. If I elbowed him in the back of his head, what would he say as the referee? I’d have got sent off.

Of course I was telling him [Jones] all game what was going on, but he was having none of it. The thing is, they don’t really want to talk to the players. And when that happens, the game becomes about them, and that should never be the case. Look, it’s a tough gig for them, I get that. But talk to the players, understand where they’re coming from, don’t just ignore them.

Why would I have any regrets for what I did? I’m a human being, I didn’t do anything to anyone. I would never have any regrets; even if I would have done something to him, I don’t think I’d have had any regrets over it.

I wanted to stay and fight for my place, but Liverpool told me to find a new club as they’d signed Djibril Cisse to replace me

The whole process in leaving Liverpool was pretty straightforward, to be honest with you. I was told the club had received a bid from Birmingham and that I was welcome to go. Given that I had another year left on my contract, I said I’d stay and fight for my place, but they said no. They told me Djibril Cisse was coming in and that I wouldn’t play. And that was it,  I had to find another club.

It was always going to be Birmingham, though. At that time they put a bid in for me, and Steve Bruce came to see me at my house on the Wirral. He was the only guy who came up to see me and I was sold on everything he had to say.

That West Brom job will have 100% hurt Steve. I think he’s a very good man manager. He helped me get the best out of myself. He was fantastic. He does get tarnished with that dinosaur rush in the modern game, but the only thing I will say is that he built a good team around him, which is what you need if you’re going to succeed at the top.

It’s why you see the likes of Pep Guardiola with this massive team of people around him in the dugout. You can’t do everything. You’ll end up taking the blame for everything, but you can’t do it all. I really enjoyed my time with Bruce and  obviously I went to play under him again later on in my career with Wigan.

Gerrard is always going to be under pressure at Aston Villa, but it was Carragher who I always thought would go into management

This is the problem when you’re at a big club like Aston Villa – you’re always going to be under pressure. You’ll always feel it because fans will make sure of it. They’re fantastic when things are going well, but they’ll put your nail in the coffin when they’re not. He [Steven Gerrard] understands that. He had a fantastic time at Rangers but this is a different kettle of fish altogether.

The Premier League is relentless and Stevie knows that. You’re always relying on your senior players and I just think those big names at the club just need to step things up a little bit more. The pressure is on and he needs a win.

I always thought [Jamie] Carragher would be the one who would step into management after he retired. The reason I say that is because he was really, really good at remembering everything and anything to do with football and stats. Whenever you wanted anything, Carra was who you’d go to. “What’s the name of that lad from the French league?” And bang, he’d tell you straightaway. He was really good at that sort of thing, and I’m not surprised he’s now in a job where he’s still constantly surrounded by and talking about football, but I did think we might have seen him in a dugout.

Wigan job took everything out of Paul Jewell; we were possessed on that final day

For euphoria at the end of a season, that ‘Great Escape’ with Wigan is right up there with the best of them, for me. It was a tough season and was always going to be tough. They came up and did really well in their first season in the Premier League. They were almost this unknown outfit, if you like. And then once teams get to know you, it becomes much harder, especially at that level.

I came in and I loved it to be honest. There was a great atmosphere around the place and I had a fantastic time. But once you start losing a few games on the spin, that’s when things get really tough. I always say winning is a habit, a great one, but so is losing. One defeat leads to another and then another, and so on. We found ourselves in a bit of a rut and we were losing quite a few games in a row over Christmas and into the New Year.

But by the time we got to the last day of the season, somehow it was still in our hands and all we had to do was beat Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. We were all possessed for those 90 minutes. To win that game in the end was just indescribable.

You realise how tough it is when you can just see the energy completely drained from the manager. We’d had such a tough season from start to finish, and usually on the last day you’re told the date you’re to report back for training, all of that admin stuff and off you go.

But after that Sheffield United game, the manager said “we’ll see you on Tuesday”. We just knew he’d had enough from that moment. It was really tough on him and those nail-biting ends to seasons really do take so much out of the managers. You see their hair colour change, you notice all of these little things. Not just at the bottom of the table, either. Look at David Moyes by the time he left United. Then, I think it was a couple of months later, he looked a totally different person. The stress that he was under; you could see it was taking its toll.