Motherwell hoping Leicester ace Vardy inspires new striker
Published:
Jamie Vardy’s climb from non-league football to Premier League champion is a story spellbinding enough to attract Hollywood movie makers. For Motherwell, they hope it simply motivates their new signing.
Mark McGhee unveiled Jacob Blyth as one of three new faces at Fir Park for the coming season, bringing in the striker from Vardy’s club Leicester, as well as Chester’s Ben Heneghan and Richard Tait from Grimsby.
Just like his former teammate, Blyth started life as a footballer in the English non-league system and is targeting a similar career trajectory as the England star.
“I signed in the same week as him so I was quite close to him,” Blyth said at a media conference. “We’ve got the same sort of background coming from non-league. He has pulled me aside and told me a few things here and there that have been brilliant for my game.”
Standing at 6ft 3”, the 23-year-old doesn’t quite share the same physical profile as Vardy, and is often used as more of a target man who looks to bring others into play rather than a whippet who stretches defences.
Nevertheless, Blyth is relishing the prospect of regular football at Well having endured a lot of frustrating loan spells in his time with the Foxes.
The Nuneaton native was temporarily farmed out seven times to five different clubs in the four years he was at Leicester, playing 52 league games and scoring 12 times during that span.
He joins a side that finished fifth in the Ladbrokes Premiership last term and will be looking to challenge for a European place in their first full season back under the charge of McGhee.
The Scotland assistant took over for a second spell in the Fir Park dugout in October last year, winning 12 and drawing four of his 28 league assignments to guide Well up from ninth place to their eventual finishing position.
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