Jamie Vardy’s transfer to Arsenal is the infamous move that never was, with a switch from Leicester City in 2016 never going through.
The striker scored 24 goals in the 2015/16 season, firing the Foxes to their famous, and wholly improbable, Premier League title win.
A scoring streak of 11 matches for Jamie Vardy truly put him at a level of some of Europe’s most clinical forwards.
That naturally saw Arsene Wenger push to sign the England international in the summer, with a deal appearing on the brink.
It never happened though, with Arsenal missing out and moving ahead with different striker options instead.
So, despite history moving in a different direction, Arsenal Insider has taken a look at how things perhaps could’ve turned out if Vardy joined, so suspend your belief for one moment and let us take you on a journey through an alternate reality.
Arsenal’s 2016 transfer window re-imagined
Arsenal made an offer to sign Vardy in June 2016, looking to bolster their striker ranks with the clinical forward.
With his deal falling through in real life, Wenger pushed to sign another option, landing Lucas Perez from Deportivo La Coruna.
He flopped though and perhaps, with Vardy signing, he would never have made the move to the Emirates Stadium in the end, being a bullet dodged from a transfer perspective.
Arsenal make the Champions League in 2016/17
One of the real negatives against Wenger towards the end of his time was the team falling out of the Champions League places on a consistent basis.
In reality, Arsenal missed out on a top-four finish in 2016/17 by just a point to rivals Liverpool, but with Vardy that could’ve been so different.
The striker would have fired the team forward with even more goals than the 77 they scored – the fifth-most in the league by the end.
In that instance, Arsenal would’ve made the Champions League places and could’ve finished just behind the title-winners Chelsea.
That, in itself, could’ve helped the team in the following transfer window.
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Arsenal go big in 2017 summer transfer window
In real life, Arsenal pushed hard to reinforce the ranks for Wenger, providing him with big-money deals for Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan – while plenty of sales went through as well.
With Arsenal securing the top-four in our alternate universe, they could have gone even bigger, most notably improving the defence.
As the Gunners get even better, with a deadly strikeforce trio capable of causing any team problems, and a much more solid defence, it puts them even closer to a Premier League title.
Manchester City were imperious, picking up 100 points that season, so even at their best it’s tough to see Wenger lifting the title again, but they go close and land Champions League football again.
Arsene Wenger stays at Arsenal
With Arsenal back in the big competitions and battling once again, Wenger stays as some of the fatigue over his stay isn’t there in the alternate universe’s 2018.
His aim is to land one more Premier League before calling it a day and leaving the Emirates Stadium for good.
Arsenal finally land Premier League title after years of going close
In the years that follow, the close title races of Liverpool and Manchester City still play out, with Arsenal joining them as a close-run third team.
2018/19 and 2019/20 still go the way of Man City and Liverpool respectively – with their ridiculous near-century campaigns still playing out in that way.
However, a chance in 2020/21, Vardy’s last year of this hypothetical five-year deal signed in 2016, sees Arsenal finally land the Premier League title.
A meagre 86 points from Manchester City and 69 points from Liverpool opens up the opportunity to finally capitalise.
The Gunners are champions again as their ability to land the Champions League consistently helped to build a solid team in defence and attack.
Football’s butterfly effect in action
While it’s all totally hypothetical and requires a bit of suspension in belief, the Vardy saga shows how the butterfly effect can work in football.
One decision can change the outcome of a team both positively and negatively, with the compound impact of it running on for years to come.
Perhaps, just perhaps, if Vardy signed then Arsenal’s success and rise back to the top would’ve come much sooner than it has.
Maybe the Gunners would’ve won trophies or landed top European football more often.
But in reality, the journey has been very different, one that is now on the charge with Mikel Arteta and his team, but with the same end goal of winning everything.
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