Who is the real winner, Wenger or Vardy?

In an interview with The Guardian, Vardy opened up about his feelings during the whole saga. “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 at Leicester, which is why I made my decision to stay,” he revealed. He also explained how Arsene Wenger and he were staying in the same hotel during Euro 2016, and that there was not much pressure from the Frenchmen to sign with the Gunners. This could be taken as a lack of enough ambition from Wenger, which has seen so many players sign with another club after being pursued by the Frenchman. But, Jamie Vardy clearly has enough reasons to stay put.

After humble beginnings playing as a centre forward for multiple Championship sides, Vardy was signed by Leicester City from Fleetwood in May 2012. The Sheffield-born player once said that he considered retiring from football after the 2012-13 season due to his poor showing, but faith shown by then coach Nigel Pearson and the club's backing helped him gain his confidence back. From there on, Leicester City and Vardy have only gone to scale new heights of which winning the Premier League last season was the greatest. For any footballer, its hard not to be grateful to a club that has backed him during his dark days and Vardy's decision to give the Arsenal chance a miss is simply repaying that faith.

But Vardy has a home crowd that worships him after his 24-goal haul in guiding Leicester City to their title win last season, team-mates whom he considers as his “brothers”, and a coach who had guided them to the pinnacle of English football. Despite N'golo Kante leaving for Chelsea, Leicester City's management made sure that Vardy had his friends fighting alongside him by extending the contracts of their star players such as Riyad Mahrez, Wes Morgan, Danny Drinkwater, Kasper Schmeichel and Marc Alrbighton. Adding to that, his role in the Leicester City line up is clear and definitive. He is the ball chaser, Riyad Mahrez, Mark Albrighton and Shinji Okazaki are his ball suppliers, and his position in the starting XI is irrefutable.

But there is much that Arsene Wenger and Arsenal can learn from this saga. Wenger really needs to shape that frontline where his players have been at times clueless of what their definitive role is. Arsenal's habit of being inconsistent winning against the big guns and losing to the small teams has cost them the title none too often. A team which shows consistency is bound to attract top players in the business. Even after several failed attempts, Arsenal's ability to pursue their targets over multiple transfers has been commendable. Despite the Gonzalo Higuain trail going cold when Juventus signed the Argentinian, the Gunners did not give up on the striker for almost six transfer windows. Similarly, they can go after Jamie Vardy during next summer if Claudio Ranieri leaves The Foxes after the 2016-17 season which might apparently change his mind. But for now, Arsenal and Wenger will have to watch Jamie Vardy play in the Foxes' blue.