Ridiculous rumors link Jamie Vardy to Tottenham, Liverpool, Real Madrid

I'll say this for the English football media – it's predictable. Leicester City's Jamie Vardy is scoring a lot of goals right now, and when a English striker at a club outside the top four starts scoring goals, it's almost a gimme that he's going to be invariably linked to Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool.

And so they are. The Mirror is claiming Spurs are planning a "surprise January swoop" for the in-form striker, while ESPN says Vardy is wanted by both Spurs and Liverpool. Not to be outdone, Spanish outlet Fichajes wins the #batcountry Award of the Day for claiming that Vardy is also on the radar of Rafa Benitez and Real Madrid.

Vardy's on a tear right now, having scored 10 goals in 13 appearances. He's also a feel-good story: Leicester bought him from non-league Fleetwood Town in 2012 for a then-record £1m, and the 28-year old is now scoring for fun in the Premier League and is a regular for England.

Vardy's pretty great, and I like him a lot, but this is #batcountry in its purest form. For starters, Vardy still has three years left on his contract at Leicester, and the Foxes have absolutely zero incentive to sell for anything less than ridiculous money. Spurs are no doubt keeping their eye out for a low-cost pure striker in January, but they're not going to over pay for one, and it's not clear that Leicester would accept even £20m for Vardy at this point. Also, he's 28, and at the point where strikers are going to start experiencing diminishing returns. Spending lots of money for a 28-year old player is completely counter to everything we've seen coming out of the club since Mauricio Pochettino took charge.

The Liverpool rumor feels like the most likely one, as Jurgen Klopp is facing a striker shortage and no doubt would like a more capable backup to Christian Benteke than Divock Origi. Vardy to Liverpool feels like a thing that could happen, especially since they have in recent years been the club most likely to pay stupid money for a player they only sort of need. As for the Real Madrid rumor: LOL.

Most likely, this is Jamie Vardy's agent drumming up interest, or bored soccer writers at papers adding one plus one. Vardy's probably interested in leaving Leicester and riding his hot streak into a job with a top club, but unless someone opens their pocketbooks I don't see it happening, and certainly not in January.