Exclusive: Manchester City plot January move for Leicester star

Manchester City are weighing up a January swoop for Jamie Vardy, Football Insider sources understand.

City are closely monitoring the Premier League’s top scorer as they look at ways of beefing up their strike force in the winter window.

Club chiefs, led by director of football Txiki Begiristain and manager Manuel Pellegrini, decided to rely on just two senior strikers this season in Sergio Aguero and Wilfried Bony after selling Edin Dzeko to Roma.

But they are considering a re-think due to the injury problems that have kept Sergio Aguero out of 11 out of City’s last 14 matches and concerns about Wilfried Bony’s capacity to stretch top defenders.

Vardy has been one of the key players in Leicester’s climb to the Premier League summit, striking 15 times in the competition this season to top the scoring charts.

The 28-year-old wrote his name into the history books by scoring in a record 11 consecutive Premier League games for the east Midlands club and has been one of the outstanding players in the top flight this season.

He is likely to be rated well beyond £20million by Leicester, who have said they will not sell any of their players in January.

As revealed by Football Insider on Wednesday, Leicester came close to selling Vardy to Sheffield Wednesday in the summer for £5million.