© Getty Images In 2010, the year after Cristiano Ronaldo swapped Manchester for Madrid in an £80 million deal, Jamie Vardy moved to Halifax Town for the princely sum of £16,000. While the move didn’t make any back-page headlines, Neil Aspin has reason to remember it well. He, after all, was the manager who secured the 23-year-old’s signature.
As bargain transfers go, parting with such a modest fee for a future Premier League record-breaker, England international and nominee for ‘The Best’ takes some beating. At the time though, and ludicrous as this might now seem, a queue of critics formed to warn Aspin that he was wasting his money.
“It was seen as a big gamble,” the then Halifax boss, who now manages Gateshead, recalled to FIFA.com. “Although £16,000 might seem like nothing, it’s big money at non-league level. And lots of people were telling me not to sign him. There were plenty back then who saw Jamie as trouble.”
There were also, in truth, plenty of reasons for Vardy’s detractor..
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