Arsene Wenger has dealt a major blow to fans’ dreams of watching Jamie Vardy play for Arsenal as he confirmed that Vardy would likely turn down a move to Emirates Stadium. The Arsenal manager made the shocking revelation whilst speaking to Chinese news outlet Tencent.

Arsenal met his release clause before the start of UEFA European Championship. Even Claudio Ranieri admitted that the Premier League winners would be helpless to see Vardy jump ships if he chose to.

However, the player jetted off to France without making a decision regarding his future, in an attempt to avert any distraction going into Euro ’16.

The British media reported on Friday that Arsenal would have to pay £30 million to activate his release clause as opposed to the previously reported £20 million.

Wenger has now shed light on the situation. “Jamie Vardy, at the moment, is at Leicester. On what I know, he will stay at Leicester,” said the French gaffer, who has promised three signings this summer.

With Theo Walcott proving ineffective up front and Danny Welbeck sidelined until January 2017, the Emirates Stadium club are in desperate need of striker reinforcements. They have been heavily linked with moves for an array of strikers, including Romelu Lukaku, Edinson Cavani, and most recently, Fulham’s Moussa Dembele.

Now that a move for the Leicester City man is not in the cards, Arsenal will likely turn their attention to other targets such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alvaro Morata. However, they will likely cost at least twice as much as Vardy might have cost had he agreed to move to the N5 club earlier this month.