The Blue Army now remember the unreal Jamie Vardy as one of (if not the) best footballer whoever graced the club. Although the road to Leicester City glory didn't begin as starry-eyed for the former Fleetwood Town striker. Vardy was viewed with suspicion as he joined the Foxes from non-league football with a noteworthy £1million price tag. The media was certainly interested in him, however. But the East Midlanders' squad didn't really know who he was or what he was about. That would all change dramatically thereafter!
The overconfident and overfamiliar footballer was said to be something strange and new to the established and slightly pampered LCFC stars upon his arrival at King Power Stadium. The soon-to-be infamous and celebrated centre forward apparently made a bad impression (as was typical when thinking of opposing supporters) on his own teammates when he came to Leicester. That's according to one former fan favourite, anyway. Let's discover the wild truth to the Vardy origin story.
Jamie Vardy made what can be described as a predictably poor impression on his Leicester City teammates upon Foxes arrival - but roster grew to love impactful 'Jack the Lad' type says City hero David Nugent
Vardy came to Leicester with a dual job to do: bring LCFC back to glory and make his name with aplomb. He eventually achieved both targets and then some! Though Vards wasn't immediately looked at longingly by one of the standouts at the time, over a decade ago now.
"When he signed, I thought: ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ He’s potentially come to take my place in the team, so I saw him as a rival when he first joined."David Nugent
As you can see for yourself above, Nugent wasn't overly convinced by Vards. And neither were his Foxes colleagues. 'Nuge' saw the newly installed forward as a rival or even a threat to his own LCFC role.
"Being Jamie Vardy as he is, he comes straight in and starts speaking as if he knows everybody from the off.Nuge
“Usually you get a shy guy coming in who doesn't speak to anybody for the first three weeks but he was straight in from the off and the lads were like: ‘Who's this guy?’
“I think at first a lot of people took time to accept him because he was from non-league"
Nugent revealed that the pair didn't really get on to begin with either. Vardy's unusual training methods were a cause, the 40-year-old's claims. The duo definitely got it together afterwards.
"I struggled to get on with him at first because he didn't apply himself right in training. But that's probably because he's just come from non-league"Nuge