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Jamie Vardy To Reject Arsenal Transfer, Remain At Premier League Champions Leicester City

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 05:31 PST, Jun 19, 2016

Jamie Vardy is sensationally set to turn down a move to Arsenal, and he will instead stay with Leicester City to help the East Midlands club defend their first ever Premier League title.

At the start of the month, it was reported that Arsene Wenger and Arsenal had bid £20 million ($30 million) for the forward, triggering a release clause that meant that Jamie Vardy was free to speak to the club and then leave Leicester for that amount. Arsenal were then believed to have offered Vardy a contract worth £120,000 a week ($172,000) to leave the King Power Stadium.

The 29-year-old was expected to make a decision regarding his potential transfer ahead of his departure for Euro 2016. However, when Vardy failed to announce either his departure from Leicester or eventual arrival at Arsenal before Roy Hodgson’s squad left for France, it was assumed that we’d only learn of his decision after the tournament.

Rather surprisingly though, English publication and websites soon lit up with information regarding Jamie Vardy’s decision on Sunday morning, and while it made for bad news for Arsenal’s loyal contingent, it was glorious for Leicester City supporters.

The BBC reported, “The 29-year-old England international has not made a final decision, but is understood to favour extending his time at the King Power Stadium.” After Arsenal offered to pay Jamie Vardy £120,000 ($172,000) a week, Leicester City are thought to have responded with an offer of £100,000 ($143,000). While that’s believed to have been a deciding factor in his decision, Leicester’s pursuit to keep him at the club is thought to have helped.

This is especially true since Arsenal currently doesn’t have any plans to improve upon their contract offer, which was believed to be for three years, with the option of a fourth, and they’re now thought to actually be considering different attacking options. Arsenal were originally hoping to have had their deal for Jamie Vardy agreed, at least in principle, before he had flown to Euro 2016, however he instead insisted that he wanted to focus entirely on the competition.

On Saturday, Jamie Vardy once again insisted that he was currently focusing hundred percent on England and their Euro 2016 campaign, noting that he would only think about his future at Leicester City it was over.

Speaking to the Guardian, Vardy declared, “There is only one thing I want to do here and that is play football to the best of my ability. So everything has been completely blanked out except for England, England, England.”

During an interview on Chinese television Arsene Wenger was asked about the current chances of Jamie Vardy joining Arsenal from Leicester City and he seem resigned to not landing his target. According to the Guardian, Wenger explained, “Jamie Vardy is, at the moment, at Leicester and from what I know, he will stay at Leicester.”

It’s understandable that Jamie Vardy has been so sought after by Arsenal. Not only did he score for England against Wales on Thursday, but Vardy was the catalyst for Leicester City’s remarkable charge to the Premier League title last season, as he scored in 12 consecutive matches during the early stages of the campaign.

But it didn’t just end there, because he finally ended up with 24 league goals in the entire season as he spearheaded Leicester City’s improbably charge to their first ever English title. Now, it looks like he’ll be around next season to help them defend it, too.

[Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images]

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