Jamie Vardy has revealed the reasons why he chose to snub Arsenal in the summer.
The Leicester City striker, fresh from winning a remarkable Premier League title with the club, spoke about just how close he was to leaving the King Power Stadium for the Emirates during the off-season.
On international duty with England at Euro 2016, Vardy said he had a lot of time on his hands to weigh up the proposed Arsenal move after the club triggered his release clause.
“I was in the hotel room for many hours of every day with nothing to do,” Vardy said.
“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 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.”
In a bizarre situation, Vardy bumped into Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in hotels during the Euros which made for some awkward exchanges.
“To be fair I spoke to him a couple of times in the hotels we were in while we were in France. It was just, ‘Hi, are you all right?’, and walk off to the match.
“It was basically every hotel. I think he was doing French TV for the Euros. It wasn’t awkward, it was just a simple, ‘Hello, are you okay?’ That kind of thing.
“It was a nice compliment they wanted to buy me. But my head and heart were saying stay.”
Vardy is currently preparing for England and new manager Sam Allardyce’s first match in a World Cup qualifier away to Slovakia on Sunday evening (UK time).
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