Head AND heart rule for Vardy
IT is that difficult moment, when you run into the big boss, whom you have just upset, and there’s nowhere to hide. It happened to Jamie Vardy at Euro 2016. Arsenal had just met the £20million buy-out clause in his contract and manager Arsene Wenger, a pundit for beIN Sport, was staying the same hotel as the England team.
Twice Vardy bumped into him: once while he was still wrestling with the idea of leaving Leicester the second time, shortly after he had rejected Wenger’s offer.
‘I spoke to him a couple of times in the hotels we were in, while we were in France,’ says Vardy. ‘It was just: “Hi, are you all right?” and walk off to the match. It was basically every hotel we were in. He was doing French TV for the Euros. It weren’t awkward. It was just a simple: “Hello, are you OK?” That kind of thing.’
It is bizarre that they were physically so close to each other, at a time when their destinies might have become entwined, but unable actually to talk openly about the possibilities; or not in public, at least, even if Wenger might have been tempted to take Vardy into a quiet corner and convince him of the merits of joining Arsenal.
Instead the Leicester striker was left alone over the summer to make a huge decision, one which ultimately would leave Wenger frustrated.
‘I was in a hotel room for many hours of every day with nothing to do,’ says Vardy, of his time at Euro 2016.
‘You had a lot of time on your hands. 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.’
Many assumed that when a club of the pedigree of Arsenal come calling at Leicester, they get their way.
‘You can see that point but deep down if you don’t think it is right move for you, you don’t do it,’ says Vardy. ‘It is as simple as that. There were loads of reasons. You get that much time, literally, to think about every single thing, down to the tea lady. You think about what might happen, what might not, where you could be, where not.
‘Every time I thought about every little thing, both head and heart were saying: “You need to stay.” I don’t know personally what Arsene Wenger was going to do [tactically] or anything, but it was a nice compliment they wanted to buy me. But my head and heart were saying stay.’
And though Steven Gerrard once admitted that contemplating a significant move to Chelsea drained him of energy at Euro 2004, Vardy claims he was not affected.
‘Not really, because there was training and getting ready for the games, that was what it was with England. It was only in my downtime when I could be in a hotel room just playing on my Playstation.
‘In my professional life, it was the hardest decision. But I haven’t been a professional for that long! It was hard but, like I said, when it came to my head and my heart it was an easy decision.’
Of course, Euro 2016 meant an astonishing season ultimately ended on a low. Vardy did score against Wales but he couldn’t break down Slovakia in the third group game, the team England face tomorrow in their opening World Cup qualifier, and he came on as a substitute in the Iceland debacle.
Vardy at least had the pleasure of seeing that his club decision prompted a raft of recommitments from the 2016 Leicester title-winning squad.
Only N’Golo Kante has left and almost all the squad have now signed new contracts. ‘I think the majority of that lads would have signed anyway, that is how we are,’ he says. ‘We are a group of brothers. The lads have signed long-term deals now which the gaffer wanted, he wanted to keep everyone together and to only lose Kante from a Premier League winning team is not that bad and obviously getting replacement in for him.
‘I think that Leicester have been on the rise and will keep doing that, you can see they obviously want to keep it going. If it does keep going, I want to be part of that. I’ve been there from when I was at Fleetwood, five years ago when we were in the Championship and we have gone up and up and up. Hopefully it will carry on and that is something I want to be part of.’
It has been, as Hollywood may be about to acknowledge, another 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 Premier League and England.
Even a year ago, when those plans were initially being drawn up, there was no Premier League scoring record and no Premier League title to add into the mix.
Throw in the drama of the potential Arsenal move, the nadir of England’s failure in Euro 2016, there’s plenty more material with which to work.
And Vardy seems unlikely to rest on his laurels; it is almost as if he is making up for the lost time at the beginning of his career.
‘There is always a pinnacle to go on top of the pinnacle. Once you get there you want to achieve more,’ says the 29-year-old. ‘That is part of the people we are and that is what you always want to do. Last year was massive for the club and it weren’t supposed to happen.
‘We enjoyed it very much and it is not supposed to happen again personally at Leicester, so we’re just out there enjoying ourselves. ‘There is no pressure out there around us. But you can’t stop doing what you have done, you have got to keep going, you never want it to end, you never want it to stop, so the only way to keep that going is to constantly put the work in.
‘That is the only way you are going to get benefits from it.’