Harry Arter walks a fine line, but rejects ‘dirty’ label

Harry Arter cocks his head to one side and asks for the question to be repeated.

“Are you a dirty player?” It’s a query borne not so much of the appalling, one-off tackle on Stoke City’s Joe Allen last month, for which he apologised, so much as a disciplinary record that lists a total of 12 yellow cards and one red beside his name in this past season alone.

That’s roughly a card every three games played and a ratio perfectly in step with a career which has seen him disciplined 81 times across 251 games with Charlton Athletic, Woking, Carlisle United, Bournemouth and Ireland.