Jamie Vardy is set to start his 13th season with Leicester City after signing a new one-year contract at the King Power Stadium, and the 37-year-old will be hoping to create another chapter in his extraordinary career with the club. Vardy has won the Premier League, the FA Cup, two Championship crowns, and competed in all three major European competitions while at the club, and his move from Fleetwood Town to Leicester City in the summer of 2012 is legendary.
However, Vardy’s fate could have been very different if Swansea had signed him in 2012, when he was offered £800,000. Swansea’s loss was undoubtedly Leicester’s gain, and 12 years later, the former non-league star is still going strong in the East Midlands. Swansea City will have massive Jamie Vardy regrets.
Vardy, who was released by Sheffield Wednesday as a youngster, had to work hard to become a professional footballer. He played for Stocksbridge Park Steels and Halifax Town before joining National League side Fleetwood Town in 2011. During his one season at Fleetwood, he scored 34 goals and recorded 17 assists in 40 appearances, helping the Fishermen win the Conference title and promotion to the Football League.
Fleetwood knew they had a major asset on their hands and tried to cash in on the goalscorer, and Vardy was reportedly offered to Swansea City for £800,000 prior to his move to Leicester, a deal that the Swans declined. Michael Laudrup took over as Swansea manager in the summer of 2012, and he signed Spanish striker Michu to add to the club’s already stacked striker department, which included Danny Graham, Leroy Lita, Luke Moore, Stephen Dobbie, Rory Donnelly, and Itay Shechter.
With that in mind, it’s reasonable that Swansea believed there was no need to risk £800,000 on a non-league striker, but in retrospect, it’s a move that the Swans’ leadership will undoubtedly regret. If Vardy had signed, he would have struggled for regular playing time in SA1, but he could have been loaned out, and by the 2013/14 season, the likes of Graham, Moore, Dobbie, and Shecter, all of whom mentioned above, would have left, opening up opportunities for the former non-league striker.
There’s no guarantee Vardy would have been as successful at Swansea as he was at Leicester, but passing up the opportunity to recruit him for such a low sum will be a great regret in the future.
Jamie Vardy is still performing at the highest level for Leicester City.
Vardy, despite being 37, is likely to play another season in the Premier League, whereas Swansea has been a mid-table Championship club in previous seasons, adding salt to the Welsh club’s wounds. The striker was part of a title-winning team at Leicester City last season as the Foxes made an immediate return to the Premier League, and while Vardy wasn’t a regular starter, he scored 18 goals in the Championship, more than Swansea’s leading scorer did.
Despite not being able to start every game like he used to, the 37-year-old is still a good option off the bench and knows where the back of the net is, which is why he was granted a new one-year contract by Leicester following their promotion to the Premier League. Swansea City fans will have to sit back and watch Vardy return to the top division next season, knowing that if the club had taken a different decision 12 years ago, everything could have been very different.
