Rewind to 2016 and you’ll recall that the transfer gossip around Leicester City’s title-winning team was all the rage that summer.
Rumors were swirling about the Foxes’ top players being targeted by big clubs for transfers. In the end, N’Golo Kante was the only one who left, joining Chelsea.
But it wasn’t for lack of effort from those big clubs. It was rumored that Arsenal was considering a £40m move for Jamie Vardy at the time.
Danny Simpson recently talked about the speculation surrounding Vardy back then, admitting he was certain the striker would join Arsenal that summer.
“When those guys were being linked with teams, because I know that Wenger was close with both Vardy and Kante, were you boys like ‘we’re not recovering from that’?” Simpson was asked.
“Yeah, the Vards one, I felt it was going to happen, but obviously it was like nah man you can’t leave. It didn’t happen, and we were buzzing init,” Simpson said.
Vardy proved he was no one-season wonder, going on to win a Golden Boot a few years later. With a bit more luck, he could have taken the Foxes to the Champions League on multiple occasions.
At that time, Arsenal needed a prolific scorer as Alexandre Lacazette didn’t quite live up to expectations. Hindsight shows that Vardy would have been a perfect fit for the Gunners.
Arsenal really missed out, and in retrospect, they may regret not pursuing the deal with Vardy instead of turning their attention to Lacazette. If only they could turn back time.
