Leicester players set for desert party

LEICESTER’s stars will scoop a £1million Las Vegas jackpot if they win the league.The club’s billionaire Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha will put the seven-figure sum into a kitty to get the party started in the Nevada desert if the Foxes are crownedPremier League kings. Claudio Ranieri’s men are already on course to trouser £6.5m, which will be split equally between the squad, for finishing 12th or above.That was agreed prior to the campaign when survival was a more realistic aim than winning the title. But should they pull off one of the biggest shocks in football by becoming champions then they will be handed a Vegas party fund as well.Arsene Wengerhas told his scoutingstaff to unearth another Jamie Vardyas his team prepare to face Leicester’s scoring sensation.And the Arsenal manager has boosted those chances by prising Ben Wrigglesworth away from the King Power Stadium – the man who unearthed Vardy and Leicester’s other bargain-basement star Riyad Mahrez.Vardy was snapped up from non-league football when he moved from Fleetwood in 2012 for £1millionwhile Mahrez was a £400,000 snip from French club Le Havre in 2014.Wenger admires the Leicester recruitment policy and signed Wrigglesworth to bolster his scouting network.The French boss said: “We try to get the best people in every department and the Leicester scout was on our list.“Not just because they are top of the league but because we heard about his quality and we want the best.”Wrigglesworth was also the man who spotted midfielder N’Golo Kante. The £ 5.6m signing from French side Caen has been a major player in Leicester’s rise to the top ofthe Premier League – a position theywill endeavour to cement against Arsenal at the Emirates this afternoonLeicester City's Algerian midfielder Riyad Mahrez celebrates scoring his team's second goalAnd it is Wrigglesworth’s eye for a shrewd signing that Wenger hopes will unearth talented players from the lower divisions who are full of desire.Asked if he was looking for another Vardy, Wenger said: “ Yes, of course.If a scout comes to convince me there is a player of exceptional quality at that level I will take a gamble.“They are out there, stars in non-league. In the Premier League you will have more and more foreign players and that means other good players will go down and down and down so you will find quality players there.”Wenger is aware of the drive and ambition of players in the lower reaches and believes they have an advantage over the pampered youngsters coming through at Premier League clubs.Wenger said: “The hunger index is sometimes built by the difficulty of realising your dream and developed by that.“I believe that sometimes when you start at 18 on the red carpet it can make you think: ‘That isnormal, this is easy.’“A player who starts and has been educated at Arsenal starts in the Champions League.“He doesn’t know what it is to fight every week just to make his position in his team and to win the game.“These kind of players from the lower leagues, once they come up, they have watched on TV the Champions League or Premier League and once they are in there, they are ready for a fight. It develops the hunger.”But Wenger acknowledged that fans of the high-profile clubs will need patience if the bargain buys are to succeed.Citing Mahrez as a prime example, he said: “We live in a strange society.“If I sign a player for £400,000, before he plays people will say: ‘What is that? That is not serious for Arsenal.’