Post by QPR Report on Jan 31, 2009 8:37:11 GMT
David Lacey/The Guardian
Heskey's reinvention makes the case for wrinkles in the rush
The revitalised striker is demonstrating that experience still counts for something in a pace-obsessed game
In football it has been a good week for the over-30s. Or to be more precise attacking players whose careers are reckoned to be on life support once their teens and 20s are behind them. In the modern game speed is everything. The value of experience, along with the mental dexterity which often survives any physical deterioration, is in danger of being overlooked.
Certainly the physical and mental faculties of Emile Heskey, just turned 31, appear to be in perfect working order. No sooner had he joined Aston Villa from Wigan in the January sales than Heskey was scoring the winner for his new employers at Portsmouth on Tuesday. While the way the striker found the net was impressively assured, it was Heskey's contribution to the build-up which suggested that he still has much more to offer than scoring none-to-frequent goals. After heading Brad Friedel's huge clearance to Gabriel Agbonlahor, Heskey immediately ran on past an unusually hesitant Sol Campbell to meet the return and do the rest.
Villa paid Wigan £3.5m for Heskey, the same amount Manchester United paid Tottenham for Teddy Sheringham, who was also 31, in the summer of 1997. Once at Old Trafford Sheringham went on to win all the major honours and was playing for Colchester United at 40. Heskey is unlikely to collect a similar number of medals or carry on for quite so long but, having been reunited with Martin O'Neill, his mentor at Leicester City, the process of reinvention already begun under Steve Bruce at the JJB Stadium may continue apace to the benefit of both club and country.
Recalled for England by Steve McClaren and retained by Fabio Capello, Heskey has already done much to shake off the blundering image of his earlier international appearances, not least his cumbersome contribution to the 2004 European Championship. He will not be ranked among the game's prolific scorers but his enduring ability to hold a ball up and bring others into the game is a strength Villa have missed in the absence of the injury-prone John Carew.
The fee O'Neill paid for Heskey makes the £14m Manchester City reportedly paid for Craig Bellamy seem even more absurd, which is not so much a reflection on Bellamy's abilities as the fantasy world the transfer market enters when it is known that the buying club has sandbags of Middle Eastern money to spend. And Liverpool were widely expected to have signed Heskey for nothing this summer, when he was out of contract at Wigan. He would probably have ended up on the bench at Anfield but that would have been a cheaper way of keeping a seat warm than paying £20m for Robbie Keane to sit, watch and wait in vain.
While the inclusion of Heskey in the England squad for the upcoming friendly in Spain would not attract much comment, even the possibility of David Beckham being recalled will reignite arguments about the player's true worth at the highest level, which have persisted ever since he left the game's mainstream to go busking with Los Angeles Galaxy.
The part played by Capello in getting Beckham to Milan during the MLS close season was an obvious sign that the England coach thinks the player may still have a contribution to make towards qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, a feeling presumably strengthened by the two goals the national team's former captain has scored in four days recently.
Whatever the pros and cons concerning Beckham's case for more international caps, the one argument which should not be levelled at him is his age. Beckham is 33 but so was Uwe Seeler, who four years after playing against England in the 1966 World Cup final was included in the West Germany team for the 1970 tournament in the heat of Mexico, playing a withdrawn but no less influential role and still scoring one of the goals that knocked out Alf Ramsey's team in the quarter-finals.
Tom Finney played for Preston in his late 30s, moving from wing to centre-forward when he lost a bit of pace. Cliff Holton was still linking the play at centre-forward for Leyton Orient nine years after leaving Arsenal. Football may have quickened up considerably since those days but the need to match youthful athleticism with a few wrinkles and a bit of nous has never gone away. And not everyone is a Norman Whiteside, who looked like a 30-year-old when he was still in his teens.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/31/astonvilla-martin-o-neill
Heskey's reinvention makes the case for wrinkles in the rush
The revitalised striker is demonstrating that experience still counts for something in a pace-obsessed game
In football it has been a good week for the over-30s. Or to be more precise attacking players whose careers are reckoned to be on life support once their teens and 20s are behind them. In the modern game speed is everything. The value of experience, along with the mental dexterity which often survives any physical deterioration, is in danger of being overlooked.
Certainly the physical and mental faculties of Emile Heskey, just turned 31, appear to be in perfect working order. No sooner had he joined Aston Villa from Wigan in the January sales than Heskey was scoring the winner for his new employers at Portsmouth on Tuesday. While the way the striker found the net was impressively assured, it was Heskey's contribution to the build-up which suggested that he still has much more to offer than scoring none-to-frequent goals. After heading Brad Friedel's huge clearance to Gabriel Agbonlahor, Heskey immediately ran on past an unusually hesitant Sol Campbell to meet the return and do the rest.
Villa paid Wigan £3.5m for Heskey, the same amount Manchester United paid Tottenham for Teddy Sheringham, who was also 31, in the summer of 1997. Once at Old Trafford Sheringham went on to win all the major honours and was playing for Colchester United at 40. Heskey is unlikely to collect a similar number of medals or carry on for quite so long but, having been reunited with Martin O'Neill, his mentor at Leicester City, the process of reinvention already begun under Steve Bruce at the JJB Stadium may continue apace to the benefit of both club and country.
Recalled for England by Steve McClaren and retained by Fabio Capello, Heskey has already done much to shake off the blundering image of his earlier international appearances, not least his cumbersome contribution to the 2004 European Championship. He will not be ranked among the game's prolific scorers but his enduring ability to hold a ball up and bring others into the game is a strength Villa have missed in the absence of the injury-prone John Carew.
The fee O'Neill paid for Heskey makes the £14m Manchester City reportedly paid for Craig Bellamy seem even more absurd, which is not so much a reflection on Bellamy's abilities as the fantasy world the transfer market enters when it is known that the buying club has sandbags of Middle Eastern money to spend. And Liverpool were widely expected to have signed Heskey for nothing this summer, when he was out of contract at Wigan. He would probably have ended up on the bench at Anfield but that would have been a cheaper way of keeping a seat warm than paying £20m for Robbie Keane to sit, watch and wait in vain.
While the inclusion of Heskey in the England squad for the upcoming friendly in Spain would not attract much comment, even the possibility of David Beckham being recalled will reignite arguments about the player's true worth at the highest level, which have persisted ever since he left the game's mainstream to go busking with Los Angeles Galaxy.
The part played by Capello in getting Beckham to Milan during the MLS close season was an obvious sign that the England coach thinks the player may still have a contribution to make towards qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, a feeling presumably strengthened by the two goals the national team's former captain has scored in four days recently.
Whatever the pros and cons concerning Beckham's case for more international caps, the one argument which should not be levelled at him is his age. Beckham is 33 but so was Uwe Seeler, who four years after playing against England in the 1966 World Cup final was included in the West Germany team for the 1970 tournament in the heat of Mexico, playing a withdrawn but no less influential role and still scoring one of the goals that knocked out Alf Ramsey's team in the quarter-finals.
Tom Finney played for Preston in his late 30s, moving from wing to centre-forward when he lost a bit of pace. Cliff Holton was still linking the play at centre-forward for Leyton Orient nine years after leaving Arsenal. Football may have quickened up considerably since those days but the need to match youthful athleticism with a few wrinkles and a bit of nous has never gone away. And not everyone is a Norman Whiteside, who looked like a 30-year-old when he was still in his teens.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/31/astonvilla-martin-o-neill