"Massive regret" - Cardiff City: "Gutting" Jamie Vardy claim after Leicester City success | OneFootball

Jamie Vardy nearly joined the Bluebirds from Fleetwood Town prior to his move to the Foxes

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Jamie Vardy's rise to the top of English football has been well-documented over the years, but his career, and the fortunes of Cardiff City, could have been very different had his transfer to the Welsh capital not fallen through in 2012.

Vardy was a much lesser-known non-league striker at the beginning of his career, and helped fire Fleetwood Town to a first-ever promotion to the Football League in 2011/12, as his 31 league goals saw him finish the season as the top scorer in the Conference Premier.

The Sheffield-born frontman joined Leicester City that summer, then of the Championship, and the rest was history, but years later it was revealed by Wales Online that he could have joined Cardiff City from the Fishermen instead, in a failed move that would likely have changed the fortunes of all parties involved from then to this day.

Regret issued over failed Jamie Vardy, Cardiff City deal

The Bluebirds had been beaten in the Championship play-offs by West Ham just weeks prior to their Vardy chase, and boss Malky Mackay was on the hunt for new additions to his squad for another attempt at promotion as they approached Fleetwood to try and sign the then-25-year-old.

Cardiff were keen on Vardy, and Wales Online claimed that they had a £1m bid accepted by the Cod Army for his services, but he declined the chance to make the move to the Welsh capital, then signed for Leicester in mid-May and soon admitted it was the only place he wanted to play because manager Nigel Pearson "really wanted him."

Vardy has gone to become a modern-day Premier League icon, and FLW's Cardiff fan pundit, Jack Price, identified him after we asked him for a player he wishes joined the club, after they were once linked but didn't end up signing.

“So, rather surprisingly, there have been a lot of high-profile names who you would never really think have been linked to Cardiff at all," Jack told FLW.

“I believe when we were in the Premier League, between 2018 and 2019, we were linked to both Luis Diaz, when he was playing in South America, and also Allan Saint-Maximin.

“There’s a lot of other names, but the outstanding one, without any doubt, is Jamie Vardy.

“There is a lot of substance to this as well. We reportedly had a one million pound bid accepted by Fleetwood Town in 2012, but Vardy opted to go to Leicester instead, and the rest, of course, was history.

“He became one of the best strikers of the 2010’s era in the Premier League, won the title, scored an absolute ton of goals and is still going for Leicester to this day.

“Would he have enjoyed all that success at Cardiff? I don’t know. Obviously we have been something of a graveyard for strikers who come here with a decent track record, but never find themselves capable of getting going for us.

“I don’t know why that is. Maybe Vardy would have been one of them. Maybe he never would have become a top Premier League striker, but it would have been interesting.

“Of course, it’s a massive regret because you’ve just got to look at all the success that he has had in his career, and what a player he’s turned out to be.

“It’s even more regrettable because we’ve only had one striker in the last 15 years who has hit 20 or more league goals in a single season, that was Kieffer Moore, and it was during COVID so we couldn’t even see it properly.

“It’s a massive regret. Gutting, really.”

Vardy could have been the difference-maker for Cardiff

Vardy's achievements in English football have garnered worldwide media attention, as he has been one of the most high-profile non-league success stories in the modern era, and has undoubtedly already secured his status as both a Leicester and Premier League legend.

It took a season for him to adjust to life in the second-tier at the King Power Stadium, but from 2013 he was flying for the Foxes, as they soon won promotion to the top-flight, stayed up miraculously and then were victors of the most unlikely Premier League title ever in 2015/16, as he broke the consecutive Premier League matches scoring record and was named as the Premier League Player of the Season.

He has since gone on to reach the Champions League quarter-finals, as well as win the FA Cup and Community Shield, Premier League Golden Boot, and another Championship title in the seven years since, all while Cardiff have enjoyed some success as a club, but very little relative to that of Vardy and Leicester.

The Bluebirds were automatically promoted to the top-flight in both 2013 and 2018, but were relegated back to the Championship after just a single season on both occasions, with Fraizer Campbell their highest scorer in a single Premier League season with nine goals in 2013/14.

They have been perennial mid-table strugglers in the second-tier over recent seasons, and have only reached the fifth round of the FA Cup once since 2012, while they have not gone past the third round of the EFL Cup in the same period.

It is fair to say that Cardiff's fortunes, as well as English football as a whole, would have been very different over the last 12 years had Vardy made the move to South Wales instead of Leicester.

While Bluebirds fans may rue his decision, and rightly so, there is little doubt that the 37-year-old will be certain that he made the right decision, given how things have panned out.