This is how close Jamie Vardy was to leaving Leicester over the summer

A £5m fee for Jamie Vardy seems unthinkable right now, but that's the amount the Premier League's top scorer was almost sold for last summer.

Leicester are even thought to have accepted a bid for the player from Championship side Sheffield Wednesday, only for the club's owners to veto the move at the 11th hour. Football Insider report that Vardy was keen to return to his hometown club, who had released him as a teenager in 2002. Leicester's then-manager, Nigel Pearson, was believed to have sanctioned the deal, but the higher-ups had a last-minute change of heart. If true, it's a good thing they did as Vardy's goals have propelled the Foxes to the top of the Premier League table with just 14 games remaining. The 29-year-old's 18 strikes have him three clear of nearest challengers Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku, while he broke Ruud van Nistelrooy's long-standing record for goals scored in consecutive games. Talk has also grown of a film based on the story of Vardy's life - we doubt there'd have been the same clamour if he was currently banging them in for Wednesday in the second tier.