It is the ultimate pub football debate – who has been the biggest bargain to play in the Premier League?
Jamie Vardy's decision to leave Leicester at the end of this season has put tongues in this footie-crazy country, especially after Alan Shearer described him as “the best £ 1mill ever spent”.
Vardy has rewarded Foxes-Fans 199 times since his bargain in 2012 from Fleetwood Town Town and is only a lonely goal from a double century.
His versions have made him a Leicester legend and Shearer is absolutely right to mark his co -engineer as one of the 'steels' of modern game.
But the best? Hmmm, you decide, while I have a few other candidates in Gooi.
Only two years after Vardy came to Leicester, he was followed by Algerian Riyad Mahrez, who signed for … Wait for it … £ 450,000! Four years later, the Foxes sold the winger to Manchester City for £ 60 million.
There must have been something in the East Midlands Air at the time, because keeper Kasper Schmeichel arrived in 2011 for £ 1 million and four years later Leicester also broke a part of people, partly midfield machine N'Golo Kante for just £ 5.6 million. Ok, not entirely Vardy, Mahrez and Schmeichel Territory, but in terms of football transfer conditions, pretty damn cheap.
Elsewhere in the Midlands Aston Villa got a real bargain when they signed John McGinn from Hibernian for less than £ 3 million.
While he was on the road at Wolves, the Molineux club Max Kilman from the Non-League Maidhead United took only £ 40,000 in 2018.
Many others have also proven to be real bargains, including John Stones, who left his hometown club Barnsley for Everton for only £ 3 million in 2013 – and now won 83 English caps.
Andy Robertson started his career in part-time Queen's Park, but in 2017 Liverpool only paid £ 8 million for the defender, who has been an integral part of the team that has been successful both at home and abroad.
Another full-back, Everton's Seamus Coleman, has given a remarkable service that signed at Sligo Rovers for £ 60,000.
And how about Moises Caicedo, who moved to Brighton for £ 3.6 million four years ago and has just won the Club's Player of the Season Award in Chelsea after his large switch to Stamford Bridge.
Speaking of Chelsea, I know that £ 8 million not exactly shopping in Poundland, but the Spanish star Cesar Azpilicueta hardly missed a match in almost a decade and captain the club to Champions League, Europa League and Club World Cup victories.
Every manager would like to make a good deal. Mind you, in the nineties the then-Zuid-Authampton boss Graeme Souness took a gamble on Ballon d'Or winner George Weah's alleged 'cousin'.
And Ali Dia went into the football folklore.
After he came up as a sub for Saints legend Matt Le Tissier, he was later replaced against Leeds -his only Premier League performance.
Le Tissier said, “He ran around the field like Bambi. It was very embarrassing.”
Dia was immediately released by Southampton and then fluctuated at the Non League Gateeshead, where he claimed that he had recently scored for Senegal in a world cup qualifying match … except that the African nation had already been eliminated.
And it turned out that Dia was about as much the cousin of George Weah as me.
Comments