It’s almost certainly time for Dream Team gaffers to ditch Jamie Vardy
Much of Jamie Vardy's (£4.9m) career has revolved around him proving people wrong, something he undoubtedly relishes.
When he was scoring goals for Fleetwood Town as a 25-year-old, a few may have tipped him for a decent Championship career but who would have predicted he would score 100 Premier League goals?
The majority of onlookers would have scoffed at the suggestion he was capable of firing a team like Leicester to a top-flight title as the leading protagonist in one of the all-time great sporting stories.
And in 2019/20, he claimed the Golden Boot at the age of 33, dispelling the ridiculous notion that he was ever a one-season wonder.
Making his critics look foolish seems to fuel Vardy.
And that's why it's highly likely he'll bag a hat-trick in his next game because we are advising Dream Team gaffers to transfer him out at their earliest convenience.
The Foxes' striker has scored just one goal in his last 14 games.
He's blanked in eight of his nine outings since returning from injury in Game Week 20, translating to just eight points.
Needless to say, such returns aren't sufficient to propel a Dream Team towards mini-league glory.
With 130 points, Vardy is the ninth-best forward overall but his ranking owes a lot to his impressive early-season form — he achieved more than half his current total by Game Week 7.
He remains among the top ten most-popular forwards with an ownership of 14.2% but will surely slip out soon.
Vardy's season was disrupted by a hernia, something he still seems to be partially suffering from when sprinting.
And of course Leicester's overall injury troubles haven't helped as it's natural a weakened team would lead to a reduced service for the star striker.
In terms of replacements, there several intriguing options in the same price bracket:
- Son Heung-min (£4.7m)
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£4.5m)
- Gabriel Jesus (£4.9m)
- Gareth Bale (£4.8m)
- Marcus Rashford (£5.0m)
Writing off Vardy has proved foolish in the past but it's probably wise to remove the romanticism from the situation and make a logical decision.