If Jamie Vardy turns down Arsenal, he'll regret it for the rest of his life

Jamie Vardy’s whole career has been about proving people wrong: the people who said he wasn’t good enough for professional football; the people who said Leicester City couldn't win the league. If he doesn’t now try and prove wrong the people who say he isn’t the right fit for a huge club like Arsenal, I think he will regret it for the rest of his life.

If in a parallel universe I had stayed at QPR in 1991 and was looking back at my career today, wondering what could have happened if I’d joined Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, it would be with a deep, deep sense of regret. Will Vardy want to look back on his own time in football and wonder what it could have been like to work with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal?

Even if he does move to Arsenal and things don’t work out as he had hoped, the most important fact will be that he tried, that he embraced the opportunity to further himself and test his quality at a higher level. Leicester might have won the title last season but playing for a club like Arsenal is a whole other challenge - and one he must take on.

It’s not like Vardy is a bright young thing who will have more opportunities: he’s 29 and as far as joining a big club is concerned, this could be it, the one chance he has to perform for one of the most famous teams in the world. If you really drill down into the issue, there’s no way you can expect him to stay at Leicester. He has to grasp this chance now.

The latest suggestions seem to be that Vardy is leaning towards staying at Leicester and I am not surprised that he is torn between the two futures that are open to him. There will be a voice in his head telling him that he owes Leicester for what they have done for his career, that he should show a bit of loyalty and have a crack at the Champions League with the club next season. They have made him one of the most feared forwards in football after all.

But the sound which should prevail through all that is the other voice, telling him that the chance of join a big club like Arsenal is just too good to turn down. He wouldn’t be guaranteed a first-team place every week, they might not even win a trophy with him up front, but on a personal level, playing for Arsenal is a big step up from Leicester City.

I can speak from personal experience. I had the chance to join Manchester United from QPR and although there was no guarantee I would get in the United team, I took the gamble. I was happy at QPR, one of the best clubs in London, felt that same tug of loyalty and was one of their best players, but there was no way I could turn down United and the chance to work with Alex Ferguson.

It all comes down to Vardy’s own ambition, and nothing else. Not money, and not the opinion of his team-mates, who according to the Telegraph today have been ringing and texting him begging to stay. They named Wes Morgan, Robert Huth and Kasper Schmeichel as being involved in the charm offensive but in my experience players don’t get involved like that. I don’t think that will be a factor in his decision at all.

From the outside, he seems very driven, ambitious and selfish, in a good way. Vardy now needs to test himself to the full by playing with better players and in a more high-pressure environment. Playing for a big club is when you really find out what you are capable of as a player and what you can achieve. He’s reached a ceiling at Leicester: things can’t get any better than they were last season. Moving to Arsenal gives him the chance to expand his achievements and further his legacy.

Playing for a big club transforms your life. You go global. You’re not just Jamie Vardy, the man who won the most amazing title in Premier League history, you are former Arsenal player Jamie Vardy – and those three words, ‘former Arsenal player’, make a big difference. It gives you a certain status that never leaves you.

Perhaps the timing is unfortunate but in truth it’s very unlikely that the speculation will be affecting Vardy in any negative sense with England’s opening match now just four days away. He’s the last person I would expect to lose his focus over something like this. A few years ago he was playing non-league football and he’s just arrived in France for the Euros; he won’t have a care in the world.

But he must know deep down that there is only one answer to the dilemma facing him at the moment.