Exclusive – Emile Heskey assures Luis Suarez: Liverpool are going in the right direction

Emile Heskey has told Luis Suarez he can achieve his aim of playing Champions League football if he stays with Liverpool.

The Uruguayan striker has admitted he would consider leaving Anfield if a team playing in Europe’s elite competition made a move for him.

But Heskey hopes Suarez, who has scored 29 goals for the Reds this season, will remain on Merseyside and claims the 26-year-old can help fire the club back into the Premier League's top four.

“It is difficult to keep hold of your best players when you fall out of the top five or six teams but fingers crossed he has a good think and he stays," said Heskey, who scored 60 goals for Liverpool between 2000-2004.

“Liverpool is a massive club. They are going in the right direction so fingers crossed he can look at that and take them to the next step and back into the top four."

A former team-mate of Heskey's at Liverpool, Michael Owen, earlier this week announced his intention to retire from football at the end of the season.

And Heskey, currently playing for Newcastle Jets in Australia, paid tribute to the 33-year-old, who scored 40 goals in 89 appearances for England: "I was shocked. I think Michael still has a lot to offer.

"If you look back on his career, there have not been many since him who have come through at the age he did and taken the game by storm. The only other notable one is Wayne Rooney.

"He was an outstanding talent and a lot of young players need to look at what he has done and how he has conducted himself from the age of 15 up to now."