Just how close Vardy came to joining Arsenal... apparently.

[urban.spaceman]

Originally an Athletic article. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8232401/Arsenal-completed-deal-sign-Jamie-Vardy-2016-Leicester-star-changed-mind-says-Law.html

 

Arsenal completed deal to sign Jamie Vardy in 2016 before Leicester star changed his mind, says Law

By Jordan Seward For Mailonline 13:05, 18 Apr 2020 , updated 13:15, 18 Apr 2020

12hrs ago

Former transfer chief Dick Law has revealed just how close Leicester striker Jamie Vardy came to moving to the Emirates Stadium in 2016.

Arsenal had identified Vardy as a prime target after he fired Leicester to the title in the 2015-16 season.

Vardy bagged 24 goals and set the record for scoring in consecutive Premier League games, netting in 11 successive matches.

Arsenal came incredibly close to signing Jamie Vardy from Leicester after the 2015-16 season 

Vardy's 24 goals that campaign fired Leicester to an unlikely Premier League triumph 

JAMIE VARDY'S LEICESTER STATS

(All Competitions)

Games: 300

Goals: 126

Assists: 51

Arsene Wenger was in need of bolstering his attack and wanted to bring Vardy to the club.

Law, who spent 13 years at Arsenal between 2005 and 2018, was in charge of brokering the deal and has now revealed how the striker was ready to sign before making a last-minute U-turn. 

Speaking to , Law said: 'The deal with Leicester was done, the deal with the player was done.

'He came down to visit with his wife Rebekah, he sat on the couch in front of Arsene… and then he backed off.

 

 

'On his way back to Leicester I get a call from the player saying he wants to think about it overnight.'

'At that point, you know it's bad news.'

Arsene Wenger wanted to bring him to Arsenal but Dick Law said Vardy changed his mind 

Vardy has enjoyed another prolific season, and has scored 19 times for Leicester this term 

Vardy instead opted to remain at Leicester where he has etched his name into the club's folklore.

The former England international has been a star player for Leicester over the years and was on the verge of helping the club return to the Champions League before football was suspended due to the coronavirus crisis.

Arsenal, meanwhile, were teetering in ninth before the enforced break and look set to miss out on European football altogether.

Vardy has enjoyed another prolific season, scoring 19 times for Leicester. 

[Leicester_Loyal]

Thank **** he changed his mind.

[Danizen]

Imagine if he'd gone. Wenger would have played him on the wing, he would have been completely ineffective, all Arsenal's Twitter fans who never watch matches would have hounded him out and he would have the same reputation as Drinkwater.

[st albans fox]

I wonder what arsene said? 
 

perhaps he had a premonition about working under a french manager .......

[lestajigs]

Lets be honest yes arsenal are a massive club, behind man u and Liverpool, easily the biggest in the country, but come on, i cannot see how he would of bettered his career going there,(other then wages) seems a very toxic place tbf, for a few seasons now as well

[49er]

[Heathrow fox]

Would have ended up being Danny Welbecks understudy.Wenger was starting to lose the plot by this stage.15 years earlier it would have been a no brainier.He made the right decision.Thank God.

[UniFox21]

Jesus, that would've been too much for me to cope with. Scary how much things could have changed with a simple yes, we'd have been down easily. 

[twoleftfeet]

Perhaps it was Rebekah decision?

 

[HankMarvin]

hmmmm who to believe

 

 

The England striker also claimed that he never spoke to Wenger about the move, and was instead focusing on his Euro 2016 campaign.

"I was away with England. No [I never spoke with Arsenal]."

Cue anger from Arsenal fans about why Wenger didn't do more to land the striker.

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, HankMarvin said:

hmmmm who to believe

 

 

The England striker also claimed that he never spoke to Wenger about the move, and was instead focusing on his Euro 2016 campaign.

"I was away with England. No [I never spoke with Arsenal]."

Cue anger from Arsenal fans about why Wenger didn't do more to land the striker.

I’m pretty sure that vards travelled to arsenal.  Law has no reason to make anything up whereas vards wants to look professional and not indecisive when asked later about it ...... he would also be concerned how it would look to us if we knew he got as far as sitting down with wenger ..... he could have spun it to look good in our eyes though .....

[HankMarvin]

 

 

 

The following comments probably didn't help either

 

But now it looks like us Gooners are going to held in suspense until after England get knocked out of the Euros in the quarterfinals before finding out if we are successful, which means that we could miss out on other targets if we get a negative response.

But since we heard that Vardy is still thinking about it, Wenger has come out and said that the 29 year-old is not experienced enough to be an automatic first choice for England. “I don’t think that Vardy will be a starter,” Le Prof said. “He has earned his place in the squad.

“I don’t say this because he does not have the quality, but because he doesn’t have enough experience at that level to say the whole tournament will depend on Vardy. Will he be there? Certainly.”

Does this mean that Wenger is also wary of playing Vardy in high pressure games like the Champions League? Last season, Leicester won the title but had hardly any distractions in the form of cup games, having been knocked out of the League Cup and the FA Cup at an early stage.

 

Could Wenger be warning Vardy to expect to be on the bench regurlarly?

[StanSP]

Made the decision to stay at the bigger club in the end. 

 

For all he's achieved here, I can forgive him for nearly leaving! 

[Dan]

God I remembe when I thought he was all but gone. Was a bigger level of sickness than anyone else going for sure, even Kante.

[Corky]

20 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

 

"I was away with England. No [I never spoke with Arsenal]."

 

I wanna stay at Leicester, the best team in the land!

[StriderHiryu]

In his book he said that he very seriously considered the offer and he and his wife even went to see prospective schools for their children. It wouldn't have surprised me that in terms of agreeing financial terms, a deal was struck.

 

My suspicion is that he came to the realization that in signing for Arsenal, he'd be just another player, whereas at Leicester he would retire as a legend. Some people say the style of football they play wouldn't suit him, but this season has proved that to be the load of codswallop that theory is, because now when we play possession football, Vardy is still banging them in.

 

I would be shocked if there isn't a statue of him outside the ground or even a stand named after him when he's done here. He's got to be the most popular player we've had in recent times, if not in history. He might have won some more silverware with Arsenal (though these days we look by far the more likely to do so), but it depends on what you are after. At his age, I think he made the right decision as very few players go down into a club's folklore no matter which club they play for. By the time he's retired with us, Jamie Vardy may well be a contender for the best ever player to have played for us.

 

Look at Drinkwater, Kante and Mahrez. All 3 have gone onto win more trophies, but will any of them go down as club legends for their new teams? Kante is loved by Chelsea fans but there are rumours he might be sold as he doesn't fit their new style of play. Of course it depends on what you're after as an individual and most players want to win as many trophies as they can. But I have a lot of respect for players like Gerrard, Vardy, Le Tissier, etc who are players are synonymous with one club and though Vardy isn't a one club man, he is in terms of the Premier League. That said when he's 35/36 if he left to have a season with his beloved Sheffield Wednesday I'd have no ill feeling toward him whatsoever. In fact I think that might be a nice story for him - to end his career by helping get his boyhood club promoted back to the top flight 20 years after they said he wasn't good enough to play for them! Would make a great ending to his movie too!

[Bert]

Imagine all the times he’d have scored against us and the celebrations he’d have whipped out  

[willie-bell-in-rothley]

Mr Leicester City,     says everything about club

[TJB-fox]

3 hours ago, Danizen said:

Imagine if he'd gone. Wenger would have played him on the wing, he would have been completely ineffective, all Arsenal's Twitter fans who never watch matches would have hounded him out and he would have the same reputation as Drinkwater.

Or could have become Arsenal’s main man scoring 25 goals as Arsenal won the league. 

[sheffield_fox]

This story lines up with the version of events I've heard before. 

 

"He spoke to Arsene Wenger, he said chat shit get banged" 

[Criggers]

I don’t think it would be bad if he came out and admitted he went and got as far as sitting down with Wenger. Who wouldn’t explore different options in a career? Point is he stayed and we’re where we are now.

 

The one thing that I’ve picked up that’s a pet hate is Wenger saying he wasn’t experienced enough at that level to start every game at the Euros. Nobody said that about Rooney, Ronaldo, Mbappe as young lads. And that’s a short list. It’s utter bullshit this experience thing. You’re good enough or you aren’t and that’s half the problem with the england team. Relying on a squad rather than picking in form players. Christ I remember watching Fabregas practically run the Community Shield game as a 16 year old. Nobody said he wasn’t experienced enough.

 

as an older player Luca Toni was what, 28 before he played for Italy and then won a World Cup. Only got in the squad after scoring for fun at Fiorentina and whoever it was before them.

 

It wouldn’t matter that Wenger and Fergie and the media were saying all this except that the England managers seem to believe it. They think they need experience on the pitch. They’ve all played football, they’ve got experience. The whole “at that level” is a null argument. If they bang goals in in training and the league and they’ve got the right mentality then go for it.

 

No doubt about it for me, Vardy should have had much more game time two years ago. Southgate bottled it. The guy had not long broke a record for consecutive premier league goals and was still banging them in for an underperforming disjointed team since then. That’s the kind of form you want to tap into in a tournament not give a measly 10 minutes to in a last ditch effort to gain something. If he was elsewhere than Leicester you can’t help but feel he’d have been treated differently.

 

 

Edit: massively off topic there but needed for rant. Overall I couldn’t care less that he went to Arsenal if true. He made the right decision as far as were concerned and maybe England under utilising him has worked in our favour by him then retiring so win win.

[Mok]

This is on good authority,  he was never close to joining them.
they showed an interest and it was played up by the media, he thought about it for a few seconds , to the extent I got 7/1 for him to stay and had a grand on , when the media were right stuck into it and he went odds on to leave , it’s  another non story , 
 

 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

5 hours ago, twoleftfeet said:

Perhaps it was Rebekah decision?

Possibly. She's had an incredibly positive influence on him in many ways.

[Paninistickers]

On the euros thing, Any major nation in Europe with Kane and Vardy at thier disposal would've played them together. 

 

What a partnership. The movement of both players would've been an absolute nightmare for any defence of the highest level. And that both can continually pick up the ball deep or play on the shoulder.. How the hell does a centre half track two doing hat? 

 

 Southgate would make a great.manager in business. Good at media. Diplomatic. Creates positive culture. Empowers staff etc. But woefully out of his depth as a football tactician. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Trav Le Bleu]

Dick Law