MELLON: WE GAVE VARDY HIS CHANCE

JAMIE VARDY this week returns to the club that launched him from a nobody to a Premier League champion and England striker destined for the World Cup.

Fleetwood Town became Vardy’s finishing school in non-league football before a £1million move to Leicester City in 2012. And with the two clubs paired together for an FA Cup third-round clash at Highbury Stadium on Saturday, the man who signed him for the Cod Army has revealed Vardy could have been part of a fearsome threesome. Former Town boss Micky Mellon says Southampton goal-getter Charlie Austin and Newcastle marksman Dwight Gayle were also earmarked by Fleetwood scouts.

Mellon said: “Jamie coming up from non-league and achieving what he has done is a once in a blue moon event.

“He is a player who has gone on to play for England and will almost certainly be at the World Cup finals. But we nearly brought in Charlie Austin to play alongside Jamie.

“We had loads of reports about him but didn’t follow them up. The other lad from non-league we were following was Dwight Gayle when he was at Bishop’s Stortford.

“We could have had a front three of Vardy, Austin and Gayle. But we didn’t make bids and that was probably because Jamie was doing so well and we weren’t short of goals.”

To say the £150,000 cheque Fleetwood chairman Andy Pilley handed to Halifax Town