Pearson was spot on over Vardy
RISK PAID OFF FOR LEICESTER BOSS
WHEN Leicester signed Jamie Vardy for £1m straight out of NonLeague, plenty of eyebrows were raised. And when he struggled to settle down last season, I’m sure there were plenty of people saying: “I told you so”.
But in fairness to Nigel Pearson, he wasn’t one of them. He knew what he had on his hands and this season Vardy just seems to have blossomed.
He reminds me of a lad I had at Scarborough called Steve Norris. I took him from Telford United in Non-League, where he’d been scoring absolute sackfuls.
It took him a little while to settle in but all of a sudden things clicked and he was an absolute revelation. He was superb, and once he started hitting the net he didn’t look back. A couple of years after that he moved to Halifax and was the top scorer in the whole of Division Four.
He had the most important ingredient for any striker – a desire to work his socks off, to chase defenders and lost causes. That’s what Vardy has in spades.
And to be playing with a confident, experienced player like David Nugent must be doing him the world of good. I love to see Nugent scoring, because he’s someone who always plays with a smile on his face.
He’s a fantastic striker with a fantastic attitude and that can’t help but rub off on up-and-coming players like Vardy.
I do hope Leicester go up. It’s only 12 months ago that there were serious questions about Nigel. But following on from Sven’s spending spree, he’s done really well to settle things down and knit together a unified squad.
The way they’ve bounced back from losing in the playoffs last year just shows you their spirit.
Promotion to the top flight would be a fitting reward for all that hard work.