Leicester City's Jamie Vardy talks about snubbing Arsenal

Leicester City's Jamie Vardy talks about snubbing Arsenal It is that difficult moment when you run into the big boss, who you have just upset, and there is nowhere to hide. It happened to Jamie Vardy at Euro 2016. Arsenal had met a 20million buy out clause in Vardy's contract and their manager Arsene Wenger, a pundit for beIN Sport, was staying at the same hotel as the England team. Twice Vardy bumped into him; once while he was still wrestling with the idea of leaving Leicester City and the second time shortly after he had rejected Wenger's offer. 'I spoke to him a couple of times at the hotels where we were staying in France,' says Vardy. 'It was just: 'Hi, are you all right?' and then walk off to the match. It wasn't awkward. It was just a simple: 'Hello, are you OK?' That kind of thing.' It is bizarre they were so close to each other at a time when their destinies might have become entwined, but were still unable to talk openly about the possibilities. Not in public, at least, even if Wenger might have been tempted to take Vardy into a corner and convince him to join Arsenal. Instead, the Leicester striker sat alone to mull over the huge decision. Vardy insisted the speculation that swirled around his future did not affect him at all 'I was in a hotel room for hours of every day with nothing to do,' says Vardy. 'But I am not going to beat around the bush; every time I thought about it and I thought about every aspect of it both my head and my heart were saying to stay, which is why I made my decision. 'Deep down if you don't think it is the right move for you, you don't do it. You get that much time, literally, to think about every single thing, right down to the tea lady. Every time I thought about every little thing, I felt: 'You need to stay'. 'I don't know personally what Arsene Wenger was going to do [tactically] or anything; it was a nice compliment that they wanted to buy me. But my http://www.wirralcanvas.co.uk head and heart were saying 'stay'.' After winning the Premier League with Leicester, http://www.nextgenlifts.co.uk the Euros represented a disaster for Vardy Steven Gerrard once claimed that contemplating a significant move from Liverpool to Chelsea during Euro 2004 had drained him of energy, yet Vardy insists he was unaffected. 'Not really. There was training and getting ready for the games with England or playing PlayStation in my downtime. In my professional life it was the hardest decision, but I haven't been a professional that long!' Euro 2016 meant an astonishing season ended on a low. Vardy scored against Wales but couldn't break down Slovakia in the third group game the team England face today in their opening World Cup qualifier and he came on as a substitute after an hour of the Iceland debacle. Riyad Mahrez and Danny Drinkwater (pictured) mirrored Vardy by committing to Leicester He at least had the pleasure of seeing that his club decision prompted a raft of recommitments from Leicester's 2016 title winning squad. Only N'Golo Kante left and almost all the squad signed new contracts, to the delight of manager Claudio Ranieri. Vardy insists: 'I think the majority of lads would have signed anyway, that is how we are. We're a group of brothers. The gaffer wanted to keep everyone together and to only lose Kante is not bad. Leicester have been on the rise and you can see they want to continue. If it does keep going, I want to be part of that.' Vardy joined the club in May 2012 from the then Football League newcomers Fleetwood Town. 'We were in the Championship but we've gone up and up and up,' he says. 'Hopefully it will carry on and that is something I want to be a part of.' As Hollywood may be about to acknowledge, it has been an extraordinary year in the meteoric rise of Vardy. Vardy, 29, also seems unlikely to rest on his laurels; it is as if he is making up for the time lost at the beginning of his career. 'There is always a pinnacle to go on top of the pinnacle,' he says. 'Once you get there you want to achieve more. That is the sort of people we are, and that is what you always want to do. 'Last year was massive for the club and it wasn't supposed to happen. We enjoyed it very much. There is no pressure around us. It is not supposed to happen again at Leicester, so we're just out there enjoying ourselves. You never want it to stop. And the only way to keep it going is to constantly put the work in. That is the only way you're going to get benefits from it.' Vardy will keep striving, even though he is a title winner. His intensity is unrelenting. He was pictured punching himself after missing a chance at Hull in Leicester's defeat on the opening day of the season. Vardy opened his account for the season with a fine strike against Swansea last weekend 'That's just me being very disappointed in myself,' he laughs. 'The only way to make me realise was to give myself a little jab in the face! It was just frustration, a way of getting it across to myself.' And he opened his League goalscoring account eight days ago in the home win against Swansea City. 'It obviously seemed to work,' he says. 'The lads laugh, it is one of those things you do in the heat of the moment. He does not look for sympathy, given his good fortune, but there is a degree of pathos as he outlines the way life has changed.