Jamie Vardy’s influence is all over the King Power Stadium.
From the proudly plastered acknowledgements of 2016 to the fridge full of a certain energy drink in the press room and a frankly extraordinary proportion of replica shirts bearing his surname, Leicester City is Vardy Town.
The Foxes’ opening fixture in the Championship was the first competitive Leicester home match without Vardy on the books since 2012. His departure is more evident on the pitch than anywhere else.
Times are changing at Leicester City post-Vardy
Vardy, now 38, achieved astonishing things as a Leicester player and Marti Cifuentes is the first manager to have to deal with his absence. The club has more pressing concerns off the pitch but striding into the post-Vardy world is an excursion into the unknown.
Leicester, briefly, looked susceptible to becoming the backdrop to someone else’s story when Sheffield Wednesday visited the East Midlands on Sunday. Cifuentes’ tactical tweaks at half time got them out of trouble but it was Henrik Pedersen who appeared the happier of the two managers after the match.
Vardy scored 145 Premier League goals and was the most tangible remaining link to their historic title win nine years ago. His not being on the pitch at the King Power on Sunday against the club that released him as a teenager just didn’t feel right.
The former England international, who is ranked at no.32 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest Premier League players of all time, is irreplaceable. 33-year-old Jordan Ayew isn’t the long-term answer nor a complete one but has stepped up to claim Vardy’s number 9 shirt and, against the Owls, started up front on his own.
Ayew doesn’t have Vardy’s speed and he certainly doesn’t have his fizz. At their very best, there was a real electricity about what Vardy could enable the Foxes to do.
The Ghanaian striker goes for 90 minutes and forced Wednesday goalkeeper Pierce Charles into a series of excellent saves late in the game, but he doesn’t pack the pervasive sense of danger that always follows Vardy.
Leicester might never gamble successfully on another Vardy. If they do, he won’t stick around for the thick end of a decade and almost certainly isn’t going to win the Premier League or join its 100 club.
He is, in a word, irreplaceable. His goals and his impact must be compensated for in the aggregate – with goals, pace, attitude, leadership and loyalty from many players instead of one.
Ruud van Nistelrooy didn’t have to crack that conundrum. Neither did Steve Cooper, Enzo Maresca, Dean Smith, Brendan Rodgers, Claude Puel or Craig Shakespeare before him.
Players like Vardy leave both a shadow and an afterglow. Leicester will never quite let go of him, or he them, and rightly so. But Cifuentes, through Ayew and others, must find a way to drag the Foxes out into a new light.
There’s little room for error. As a relegated team with the big swinging axe of a points deduction edging closer, promotion has to be the aim.
With the likes of Birmingham City, Coventry City and Sheffield United joining Leicester, Southampton and Ipswich among the favourites, finding a whole new fizz in Vardy’s wake is a tough but essential assignment.
