BY now, it is a story that is reasonably well known. Having been released by Sheffield Wednesday at the age of 16, Jamie Vardy dropped into the non-league game, where he spent time with Stocksbridge Park Steels and Halifax Town before eventually joining Fleetwood Town when they were playing in the Conference.

After helping Fleetwood win promotion to the Football League, he was snapped up by Leicester City for an initial fee of around £1m. Three years later, he was making his England debut against the Republic of Ireland, and six months on from that, he finds himself heading into today’s game with Newcastle United looking to equal Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record of scoring in ten games in succession.

It is a remarkable tale, but had Newcastle assistant boss Paul Simpson had his way, things might have been different. While he was manager of Stockport County in the 2010-11 season, Simpson attempted to sign Vardy from Halifax.

In the end, he was unable to raise the requisite funds, and Vardy moved to Fleetwood instead. Had things turned out differently, who knows if one of the most inspiring footballing stories of the last few years would still have unfolded the same way.

“Paul says that his claim to fame is that he tried to sign Jamie Vardy from Halifax when he was the manager of Stockport,” said McClaren.

“In fairness, he said that everybody knew about him when he was playing at Halifax, and everybody was after him. But he couldn’t scrape another £5,000 together to do the deal and he ended up going to Fleetwood for about £50,000. Wow.”

It is not unprecedented for players to go from non-league football to the England team – Ian Wright and Les Ferdinand are relatively recent examples of players who began with non-league clubs and progressed to the very pinnacle of the international game – but it is increasingly rare for such rags-to-riches tales to unfold given the globalisation of English football and the vast amounts clubs can now spend on players from all over the world.

Vardy’s story is a welcome rebuttal to those who would claim that young English players are no longer given a chance, and also disproves the notion that the leading clubs’ academies provide the only route to the upper echelons of the English game.

This weekend, thousands of players will be turning out in leagues such as the Evo-Stik League and Northern League. It is heart-warming to think that, even today, one of them could eventually go on to play for his country.

“English football needs these kind of stories,” said McClaren. “I think it’s important, and it’s great for players playing non-league football, who might have gone off the rails.

“Anything can happen when you are younger. But it’s important to know there is a route back, and there are clubs, even top clubs, who will take you.

“But you still have to make that transition yourself, and it’s very rare to go straight from the bottom right to the Premier League. But it shows if you stick at it, and show a great attitude and work ethic, it can be done.”

Newcastle continue to send scouts to local non-league games, and also monitor the Football League in the hope of being able to pick up a bargain.

Only this summer, they signed teenage forward Ivan Toney from Northampton Town, and chief scout Graham Carr was at the Kassam Stadium earlier this month watching highly-rated Oxford United youngster Kemar Roofe.

McClaren would love to unearth the next Jamie Vardy at some stage in the future, but his immediate concern is shackling the current version when Leicester bring their unbeaten away record to Gallowgate later today.

Vardy was regarded as a major injury doubt at the start of the week, but his hip problem has improved markedly over the last couple of days, and it is now anticipated that he will be available, potentially with the aid of a pain-killing injection.

If other results go their way, Leicester could end the day at the top of the table, but while Claudio Ranieri’s team have been a revelation this season, McClaren feels his own side have also been slowly playing themselves into form.

This month’s 1-0 win at Bournemouth might have been fortuitous, but it means Newcastle head into today’s game with the chance of recording their first set of back-to-back league victories since last November.

“We feel that we are progressing,” said McClaren. “I can see that on the training ground and in the games. We would not have beaten Bournemouth four or five weeks ago - with a display like that, we would have lost the game.

“But they showed a spirit and togetherness, even though they weren’t playing well. They stayed in the game and we had one bit of quality. We haven’t got consistency yet though and we need that.”