Jamie Vardy’s potential Arsenal move took two blows today, with two interviews seemingly pouring water on such a deal from the player himself and Leicester City’s chairman.
The 29 year-old has one of the most influential stories to tell of any of the top players at present, having risen up the footballing ranks from Conference Premier side Fleetwood Town in 2012, to playing in and winning the Premier League title whilst breaking records in 2016.
Vardy is now playing in his first ever international tournament with England, and the dream continued when he was brought onto the pitch for his Euro 2016 debut at half-time yesterday, only to net the much-needed equaliser, before his side went onto win the match.
The story is far from over for him yet, with a possible extended run in the first-team for the European Championships this summer, before he has to make the decision on whether to leave the Premier League champions and join Arsenal, who have already agreed to meet his release clause.
Vardy gave an interview following that amazing English win, and was asked whether it had been hard to focus on his football while his club future was uncertain.
The striker responded: “It’s been easy (to shut that out). I’m here to concentrate and focus on England and that’s all I’m going to be doing and now we’ll just get back on that training field and focus on the next match.”
Leicester City’s chairman seemed confident in their attempts to keep their top goalscorer with the club beyond the current window, saying: ‘You will see the news very soon, but I think he will stay.
‘I think, so let’s see. We need to build the team. We keep continuing to believe that we can do something special in the Premier League and the Champions League.
‘The Champions League is going to be amazing for Leicester, so let’s see. Leicester is the underdog and we can still be the underdog.’
This transfer has appeared less and less likely to happen since he refused to confirm a switch to Arsenal before the start of Euro 2016, and this all-but confirms it for me.
Do you still believe there is a chance this deal will happen? Should we just pursue other deals anyway?
I wouldn’t say no to Vardy, I think he could get goals at Arsenal, he got England first goal when Kane couldn’t and England was dominating that game for most parts. It felt like an Arsenal performance in all honesty, some good attacking moments but limp in finishing… Until Vardy came on.
If we don’t get Vardy then we don’t get him, it will be a nice thing for Lei fans but it will not be the end of the world for us.
If we don’t get him and we can’t get someone like Aub (I wish!) then I would like to see us go for Lukaku, he wants to step up to a higher level and when he see’s Alexis and Ozil in training… I think Lukaku could become better than he already is.
Dembele would be a gamble but he has shown good link up play and it wouldn’t be the 1st time a player from a lower club has come to Arsenal and performed quickly. Kos took a short time to settle and look where he came from to where he is now, we got Anelka from PSG before they had moneybags backing and he was brilliant for us, Elneny came from Basil and he did help us fin 2nd and some say a signing 6 months too late… My point is he would be a gamble and I might be disappointed but I would give him a chance if we got him.
Same logic for Janssen or Milik who are another pair of CF I wouldn’t be upset at seeing.
I hope we don’t got for Morata, no more needs to be said at this point on him.
I think all us Arsenal fans need to keep in mind that even if we sign a unheard of player, we should give them the chance in the red and white to prove themselves, they could become the best CF since TH14 for all we know… Or they could end up the next NB52 >.< But hey, money doesn't stop that from happening, ask Torres about his Chavski move XD
There are just no good strikers in Europe,as much as I’m not a fan of Giroud I can understand why Wenger persists with him,these european strikers we are linked with are either old,over priced,over rated and just can’t score the 20 league goals we need,I really wish we could get a South American striker in the Aguero,Tevez or Suarez mould but we can’t due to work permit issues!
@Dee, I wish Arsenal fans would not worry about the price of a striker. Calling a striker over-priced seems silly in our case if he is a good striker. We have over 200 million in the bank, what difference does it make to us if we pay 5 or 10 million too much but land a super star striker? I for one would not care one bit if we paid 100 million for Aubamayang. Would 100 or 150 in the bank help us win a trophy? I don’t think so and I am convinced Aubamayang would definitely improve our chances or winning a trophy.
The only thing we should worry about as fans is whether our teams gets its needs addressed and at the moment a top quality striker is our main need no matter what we pay.
Sonogo aliadiere chamakh young ….. How many more bargains do we need to see before wenger understands that the world of football has changed
In England they need to make it slightly easier to get a work permit to play in the EPL,most of the best strikers are from South America but we are not able to sign talented South American strikers like they do in Spain or other parts of Europe due to the fact that there will be work permit issues!
I`ll keep this short. Will Vardy join Arsenal? No! Will he stay with Leicester? Maybe not.
I make it shorter, it’s so CONFUSING!
Strikers are such overrated species these days.. as a 29yo who started following the game back in the 90s, ronaldo and batistuta are still the best I’ve seen so far.. am not one of those who are fooled by messi and cr7 goals per game ratio.. not taking anything from them but they’re fortunate to play in an era where the quality of defenders have declined significantly just like the bowlers of today’s cricket.
Still living in the 90’s? So, according to you, why and how exactly CR7 and LM10 scored their bunches of goals? By the help of Harry Potter?
I think we should kick this barrow boy into touch. why should the ARSENAL have to wait for this f****r ?????. Arsenal are a TOP team. vardy will be shown to be a one season wonder.
If we look forward only (throw all his hillbillies stories) , start from last season until today, Vardy is worth to wait. However, he shouldn’t be the only target. Still many options out there. From world class proven to world class candidates. Usually they are tagged: NOT FOR SALE. Well, money talk.
Basically, I’m very optimistic we’ll get a new main striker. He must be better than Giroud, that’s for sure.
I don’t think Vardy will join us and I don’t think we will sign a proved top quality striker.
Screw Vardy! Let him get smashed all over on the champs league with Leicester!
When AFC come calling you answer and come running! I’ve never been to optimistic that he would be the guy to take us to epl glory! Only player worth grabbing from the foxes is Mahrez.
Why are we wasting our time (seemingly, however we could actually be working on transfers) waiting for someone to decide or not?! Move on to next target! We need to be ruthless!!! Wtf was AW thinking last season only bringing in Cech?! That mad me sick with anger! Especially the way the season played out! Now is the time for action!
i think all these apparent refusals by players connected with a move to arsenal happen for a reason , a good reason !.if a player , any player , has to take time to consider moving to the mighty arsenal then there is something wrong . it is a no brainer , move or dont move dude , dont keep us hanging , vardy is no messi .for once i am not blaming the manager for all these refusals , i think the transfer market has gone totally crazy , and players and their agents are trying to milk silly money out of clubs .