Jamie Vardy: A brief tribute to Leicester City’s greatest ever footballer - just in case
There’s a chance this could be the end. We don’t know for sure that it isn’t. There’s a chance this could be the final time we watch Jamie Vardy play for Leicester City. So we have to do something. Something on top of the debate about whether he should stay or not.
The problem is that Vardy has achieved too much, been too important, produced far more unforgettable moments than you can neatly summarise.
I’ve been thinking about how to do this for a while and what I keep coming back to is that Jamie Vardy has made my life better. Without me ever having met the bloke. That’s a pretty good superpower.
He might not have scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final or either of the two in that incredible second leg against Sevilla but when you look back at all of the club’s achievements in the past 12 years, I think there’s a reasonable case that none of them would have happened without Vardy. Both because he made the greatest escape possible and because he’s got the indescribable quality you need to make things happen when the odds are stacked against you.
As many people have said before, he embodies Leicester City Football Club - the underdog, the nuisance, the scruffy upstart socking it to the big boys.
So we got the embodiment of all that’s good about our football club - for £1million. Decent purchase.
When someone gives this much to the football club you love then you pay it back by watching them properly and giving them the respect they deserve. All the other stuff - the off the field stuff, even the rustling to a certain extent - that’s for other people. I want to acknowledge the talent of the man.
That’s not to say the rustling doesn’t make me laugh. It certainly adds to the character portrait. But that’s 1% of the story compared to the importance of having good players wear the shirt, give their all, give you moments you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
And Vardy in full flight is actually beautiful to watch, with an incredible running style. It’s totally at odds with this national view of Steptoe hyped up on vodka and skittles. That media image, or the social media clickbait image, is all fine - but show me players capable of some of what he does. Show me someone who can score the goals he scored against West Brom, Tottenham or Manchester City. You know the ones I mean. They’re only 3 of the 180. We’ll watch those again and again forever.
I was watching him a little more intently than usual on Monday with the pressure off, knowing this might be one final away day performance. Quite apart from the two goals, it was fascinating to watch him leading from the front when we were out of possession. He’s done this for a very long time now, orchestrating the press and setting the standard. When the ball goes to one side, pointing to show that he expects a runner to charge in behind him and close down the full-back. When it doesn’t happen, the frustration or infuriation.
It’s easy to label anyone over 30 as a leader but to actually see leadership in action on the pitch is something very different. It’s not something our other strikers are capable of and it’s perhaps only a role you’re able to take on when you’ve achieved what Vardy has. He knows he commands respect from everyone on the pitch.
That’s another thing I noticed on Monday, Vardy laughing and joking with one of Preston’s centre-backs when we were 3-0 up. There was no rustling there, it was pure enjoyment of the game and the battle. He’s had his adversaries on the pitch of course - clashes with Diego Costa, Ashley Williams and Jon Moss spring immediately to mind - but few footballers have ever taken their adversarial energy to the opposition terraces quite as willingly as Jamie Vardy.
As it turned out, he had three chances at Deepdale and the classic Vardy goal was the one he didn’t score. Running clear, finding the corner, tearing away in celebration. It didn’t happen this time, thwarted by a weak shot with his weaker foot and a comfortable save.
The others - the scruffy one on the end of a great move and the follow up after a team-mate’s mazy dribble - any player could score those, even if his anticipation for the second made a mockery of his marker standing and watching. That second goal would have been a tap-in for anyone else. It was a lash-in for Vardy that belied his personality and the way he has connected with this fanbase over the past 12 years. If you’re going to have a career in professional football, why not have fun while you’re doing it? Why not play like a fan?
What comes across strongly is Vardy’s absolute lust for football. It will be fascinating to see what he does when he finally retires from playing, because it’s hard to imagine he’ll be able to keep away from the game.
We’re reluctantly starting to have that kind of conversation now, but let’s never forget that Claude Puel wanted to kick off that chat more than five years ago. It’s hilarious to consider now, given that Vardy has since won an FA Cup, played two seasons in Europe and helped the club in promotion back to the Premier League. But it was 10th February 2019 when Puel benched Vardy with the notion that we needed to look to the future. The future that day, playing as a lone striker against Tottenham at Wembley, with Harry Winks at the base of the opposition midfield, was Demarai Gray - now gracing the right wing for Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League.
Exactly five years later, Vardy was again on the bench for Leicester at Watford. But he’s since returned to replace Patson Daka at the crucial stage of the season and risen to the challenge as always. It’s not just Gray and Daka that Vardy has effectively seen off to remain Leicester’s main man up front as we head into the final game of the season. Ulloa, Okazaki, Slimani, Musa, Iheanacho. But there haven’t been that many names either, because he’s so clearly been irreplaceable. Post-Puel, Brendan Rodgers definitely gave Vardy a new lease of life as he approached what would be anyone else’s veteran stage.
I remember when anyone over 30 was a veteran. Then you started to get players who were 37 and still playing up front - the likes of Les Ferdinand and Teddy Sheringham - but they’d be practically walking around the pitch. They would barely be able to appear on screen without a commentator barking about their footballing brain.
In the past two games Vardy has actually looked like a man capable of making the step up to the Premier League and leading the line. That’s not to say he will or he should but it’s extraordinary to even be saying that now. He’s looked 34 again.
Life is full of sliding doors moments - what if we hadn’t signed him, what if we’d let him go when the first season didn’t work out, what if he hadn’t walked right up to Wenger and said chat shit get banged?
However many more years of Jamie Vardy we get - ten, one or none at all, I’m so thankful for the twelve we’ve had so far.
