I knew in my head and in my heart that I had to stay
Two Wenger meetings but Vardy snubbed Arsenal
IT is that difficult moment when you run into the big boss, who you have just upset, and there is nowhere to hide. It happened to Jamie Vardy at Euro 2016. Arsenal had met a £20million buyout clause in Vardy’s contract and their manager Arsene Wenger, a pundit for beIN Sport, was staying at the same hotel as the England team.
Twice Vardy bumped into him; once while he was still wrestling with the idea of leaving Leicester City and the second time shortly after he had rejected Wenger’s offer.
‘I spoke to him a couple of times at the hotels where we were staying in France,’ says Vardy. ‘It was just: “Hi, are you all right?” and then walk off to the match. It wasn’t awkward. It was just a simple: “Hello, are you OK?” That kind of thing.’
It is bizarre they were soso close to each other at a time when their destinies might have become entwined, but were still unable to talk openly about the possibilities. Not in public, at least, even if Wenger might have been tempted to takee Vardy into a corner and con- onvince him to join Arsenal.
Instead, the Leicester striker sat alone to mull over the huge decision.
‘I was in a hotel room for hours of every day with nothing to do,’ says Vardy. ‘But I am not going to beat around the bush; every time I thought about it — and I thought about every aspect of it — both my head and my heart were saying to stay, which is why I made my decision. Deep down if you don’t think it is the right move for you, you don’t do it. You get that much time, literally, to think about every single thing, right down to the tea-lady. Every time I thought about every little thing, I felt: “You need to stay”. ‘I don’t know personally what Arsene Wenger was going to do [tactically] or anything; it was a nice compliment that they wanted to buy me. But my head and heart were saying ‘‘stay’’.’ Steven Gerrard once claimed that contemplatingp a significant move from Liverpool to Chelsea during Euro 2004 had drained himhi of energy, yet Vardy insistsin he was unaffected. ‘Not really. There was trainingt and getting ready forf the games with Englandl — or playing PlayStationti in my downtime. In my professionalpr life it was the hardesthard decision, but I haven’t been a professional that long!’ Euro 2016 meant an astonishing season ended on a low. Vardy scored against Wales but couldn’t break down Slovakia in the third group game — the team England face today in their opening World Cup qualifier — and he came on as a substitute after an hour of the Iceland debacle. He at least had the pleasure of seeing that his club deci-
‘I THOUGHT OF EVERY SINGLE THING, RIGHT DOWN TO THE TEA-LADY 4 Goals scored by Jamie Vardy in his last seven England appearances
sion prompted a raft of recommitments from Leicester’s 2016 title-winning squad. Only N’Golo Kante left and almost all the squad signed new contracts, to the delight of manager Claudio Ranieri.
Vardy insists: ‘I think the majority of lads would have signed anyway, that is how we are. We’re a group of brothers. The gaffer wanted to keep everyone together and to only lose Kante is not bad. Leicester have been on the rise and you can see they want to continue. If it does keep going, I want to be part of that.’
Vardy joined the club in May 2012 from the then Football League newcomers Fleetwood Town. ‘We were in the Championship but we’ve gone up and up and up,’ he says. ‘Hopefully it will carry on and that is something I want to be a part of.’
As Hollywood may be about to acknowledge, it has been an extraordinary year in the meteoric rise of Vardy. Screenwriter Adrian Butchart is pitching to make the biopic of the Vardy story, detailing his rise from non-League to England and Premier League champion.
Vardy, 29, also seems unlikely to rest on his laurels; it is as if he is making up for the time lost at the beginning of his career.
‘There is always a pinnacle to go on top of the pinnacle,’ he says. ‘Once you get there you want to achieve more. That is the sort of people we are, and that is what you always want to do.
‘Last year was massive for the club and it wasn’t supposed to happen. We enjoyed it very much. There is no pressure around us. It is not supposed to happen again at Leicester, so we’re just out there enjoying ourselves. You never want it to stop. And the only way to keep it going is to constantly put the work in. That is the only way you’re going to get benefits from it.’
Vardy will keep striving, even though he is a title winner. His intensity is unrelenting. He was pictured punching himself after missing a chance at Hull in Leicester’s defeat on the opening day of the season.
‘That’s just me being very disappointed in myself,’ he laughs. ‘The only way to make me realise was to give myself a little jab in the face! It was just frustration, a way of getting it across to myself.’
And he opened his League goalscoring account eight days ago in the home win against Swansea City.
‘It obviously seemed to work,’ he says. ‘The lads laugh, it is one of those things you do in the heat of the moment. It makes me realise I should put those chances in the net and luckily that has happened.’
In case it all sounds a little too good to be true — his England disappointment the only blot on the landscape — Vardy has learned there is a price for developing the kind of profile that inspires Hollywood screenwriters. He does not look for sympathy, given his good fortune, but there is a degree of pathos as he outlines the way life has changed.
‘I can’t leave my house,’ he says. ‘I don’t get to have many family days. I can’t really go to the shops without getting harassed. It’s fans wanting photos and stuff but if I’ve got my little girl with me [his youngest daughter, Sofia, is two this year], then I don’t really want to be putting her down to have a photo taken. I try to explain in the nicest possible way that this is my only real quality time with the family. A lot of people understand but some don’t and think we should be available 24/7. But that’s one of the things about the job we’re in. It is mad. I’m still the same person. I’ve not changed.
‘I understand fans want to get a photo or autograph but there’s a time and place. It’s a bit confusing for the younger ones, which is why I try and be as nice as possible when I say “not today, I’m trying to have a quiet day with the kids”, but some people don’t really get it.’
In England captain Wayne Rooney, Vardy has a guide to navigating the ups and downs of fame.
‘We’ve had a few chats,’ says Vardy. ‘He was thrown in at the deep end when he was 16, so to hear that experience has helped me. You find little ways to be with your family, but when you’ve got training the next day there are not many places private that you can go to. You want to give your kids as normal a life as possible, so you just try and adapt to the best to your ability.’
At least the summer break saw him enjoy a belated honeymoon with wife Rebekah, their wedding date rearranged after his first England call-up and the ceremony eventually held just before Euro 2016.
His footballing honeymoon, though, shows no signs of abating. Nailing down a place in Sam Allardyce’s team, as a starter, would prolong it still further.