Jamie Vardy: Rejecting move to Arsenal "an easy decision" to make

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 04 September 2016

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy reveals that he never truly considered leaving the club to join Arsenal once an official approach was made earlier this summer.

Jamie Vardy has insisted he has no doubt that rejecting Arsenal to remain at Leicester City this summer will prove to be the correct decision in the long term.

The England international rebuffed an approach from Gunners boss Arsene Wenger early in the transfer window, instead opting to stay at the King Power Stadium with the Premier League champions.

Vardy, who scored 24 goals in the Foxes' run to the title last time out, has since penned a new deal at the club and has now reiterated that his decision to turn down Arsenal was an "easy" one to make.

"I was in a hotel room for many hours of every day with nothing to do," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News. "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 every aspect of it I thought about, both my head and my heart were saying to stay, which is why I made my decision to stay.

"Deep down if you don't think it is the right move for you, you don't do it. It is as simple as that. You get that much time 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'.

"In my professional life it was the hardest decision. It was hard but, like I said, when it came to my head and my heart it was an easy decision. I spoke to [Wenger] a couple of times in the hotels we were in while we were in France. It was a nice compliment they wanted to buy me. But my head and heart were saying stay."

Vardy has been named on the bench for England this evening as they take on Slovakia in a World Cup 2018 qualifying fixture.