Jamie Vardy has claimed he has received death threats to his family since Leicester City took the shock decision to sack Claudio Ranieri.
The Leicester striker, currently on international duty with England, said on Monday that attempts were even made to run his wife and children off the road when his wife was driving.
Vardy said some of the reports around the time of Ranieri’s dismissal had not helped, insisting once again that he could not have been part of an alleged players’ coup in the wake of their Champions League match in Seville because he was ‘actually sat in anti-doping for three hours’.
‘Then of course the story is out there and people pick it up and jump on it and you’re getting death threats about your family, kids, everything,’ he said.
Asked in what form the threats came, he explained: ‘On social media, you name it – walking down the street. To be honest, I get them every week. Football fans don’t seem to like me that much.
‘I just get on with it but when people are trying to cut your missus up while she’s driving along, with the kids in the back of the car, it’s not the best. It’s happened plenty of times. It is terrifying,’ he added.
Vardy, who was keen to stress the threats were not necessarily coming from Leicester fans but a broad spectrum of people, said he had not reported the incidents to the police. ‘All that can happen is that they get banned on Twitter,’ he said. ‘People get cut up but if there’s no cameras you’re screwed.’
Vardy was challenged on the role the players may or may not have played in Ranieri’s demise, and in particular was asked why it took the majority of players as long as it did to publicly express their sadness at the affable Italian’s departure.
‘I can understand what you are saying, but personally, my tweet was going out straight away, but I wrote it that many times, I couldn’t quite get the wording right. You don’t know what to say,’ he said.
‘It was 24 hours before I did it (it was actually 48 hours) but we had just got back from Seville. We were delayed, landed, then went straight back home, kids in the bath and straight to bed myself.
‘It’s hard. Don’t get me wrong, what he did for Leicester was unbelievable and nobody would have expected that in a million years. We can only thank him for that.
‘But the way this season has gone, players never seem to be the ones who get the sack. It always falls on the manager and that is what has happened. We are all sincerely gutted that it did.’
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