Emile Heskey: Individually, England are very, very strong

This summer’s European Championships are right around the corner and, as usual, hype is building regarding England’s potential achievements in France.

We caught up with former Three Lions forward Emile Heskey to get thoughts on how well or otherwise he thinks Roy’s boys will fare.

The former Leicester and Liverpool star spoke exclusively to Ladbrokes News at our #ForTheFans event this week, as we grilled him on all things Euros. Well, maybe a little bit of Leicester too.

With 62 England caps – including THAT goal versus Germany, plus experience of playing at three major tournaments, few are better placed to pass judgement on the Three Lions.

England

I think they can go far, a lot of people are tipping them for the semis.

But I think, if you look at the players individually, we have a very, very strong squad, but as a team we don’t quite know what we’re capable of doing yet so it’s difficult to say where we could end up.

Harry Kane has shown on numerous occasions, not only at club level but also on the international scene, that he can lead a team.

If you’re looking for a lone striker, someone who can hold the ball up, make runs, get shots off, win headers, challenge, he’s got everything, he’s got the lot.

In terms of Roy’s squad, Danny Drinkwater can feel hard done by, for the season he’s had, he’s been great.

But Marcus Rashford coming in, given his remarkable rise and the potential that he’s got, I think it was a no-brainer for him to be in the squad so yeah I think Roy’s made good calls.

Key man

It’s got to be Kane, but Wayne Rooney too and if Dele Alli plays he’ll be key for Roy. We don’t know who he’s going to play in that role, but Alli is the sort of player who will have a big say for England.

Dark horse

Belgium have a squad that could probably win this. But we’ve been saying that for a few years now. The current group have been together for a while, but now they’ve matured, and we still don’t know what their potential is.

If they’re not going to do it now, when are they going to do it? I tipped them for the World Cup and they weren’t quite ready, so we’ll see.

Banker

Germany to make the final. They’re always there or thereabouts. We need to figure out how they actually do it and get some tips from them because they’re always hanging around at the sharp end of tournaments.

Leicester

I think a top 10 finish next season would be nice for me, to be honest with you.

I know for a fact they’ll be looking at that 40 point mark, and saying ‘let’s just get to that point, and then anything after that we’ll take as a bonus’. I think that’s what they’ll be looking at and securing another top-half finish would be great.

For me, when I was there, every season it was about winning a cup. The bigger clubs didn’t really care about the League Cup, so that was our massive target.

That was our opportunity, the one where we thought ‘yeah we’re capable of doing that’.

But winning the league like they’ve done, I’d never have seen that coming.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.