Ex-England striker Emile Heskey has revealed how he almost came to blows with Nottingham Forest legend and former manager Martin O’Neill.
The pair, having worked together at Leicester City and then Aston Villa, enjoyed a positive relationship for the most part, but Heskey has revealed how O’Neill’s constant prodding during a half-time break almost saw him lose his cool and snap.
Villa, then in the Premier League, were losing 1-0 to Championship side Crystal Palace in the FA Cup and at the interval, O’Neill took exception to Heskey’s first half display.
But for the intervention of teammates Richard Dunne and James Collins, who both held him back, the striker may well have made his feelings towards the Ulsterman abundantly clear in a rather aggressive fashion.
“We were playing Crystal Palace away,” the 41-year-old told Pundit Arena.
“The gaffer (Martin O’Neill) is one of those ones, he’ll keep popping and popping and popping, he’ll kick every ball with you.
“At times you want someone a bit calmer and we’d come in at half-time and he was like to me ‘you, blah blah blah’ and it kept going to a stage where I either had to let it go or say something.
“I got up and had Richard Dunne and James Collins holding me back. It was just one of those things.
“There was another one actually, Fulham away, I didn’t go for him but it was the same sort of thing.
“There were two managers who were really good for me. Martin because he would tell me to just express myself and play with freedom.
“I was 18 at the time and played under him from 18-22.”
Despite those two altercations, Heskey admitted that he relished his time under the former Forest chief, just as he did at Liverpool under Gerard Houllier.
“He was brilliant, I had no complaints,” said Heskey.
“I didn’t need too much coaching I just needed to be told what to do in that sense. Just go out there and perform and express myself and that’s what he did. He gave me little information that would cloud my mind.
“He’d say ‘Emile, get the ball, turn and run’ so that’s what I did.
“He was brilliant in that sense.
“Then I moved and went to Liverpool and learned a bit more about football being with Gerard Houllier who you’d have boards of things to go through and you’d go through all stats too, it was amazing. It was tough at first because I’d gone from not doing any of that.”
O’Neill, who also managed Heskey at Leicester earlier in his career, was sacked by Forest early in pre-season, being replaced by French head coach Sabri Lamouchi.
