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Harry Arter - I want to repay the club for giving me a longer contract

Written by afcb.co.uk

Harry Arter says signing a new contract with the Cherries didn't take him to long to decide over.

Arter, who joined the Cherries from non-league side Woking in 2010, put pen to paper on a new three-year-deal at Vitality Stadium earlier today, taking his spell on the south coast to over six years.

And whilst he says it was a straight forward decision to commit to the club after two promotions and two club record finishes, he says he is already targeting further achievements.   

"It was an easy decision to sign because it has been a great few years for the club and for myself," he told afcb.co.uk.

"But the most important things for me were that I have been enjoying football with a group of lads I get on really well with, and I am working with a manager I have been working with for the majority of my career and he gets the best out of me. 

"The club is going in the right direction and is in the Premier League, where every club wants to play.

"I have been at the club for so long, it’s been a great journey for me and its still going on. We still have a long way to go and I feel we can push on and achieve even more.

"These have been the best years of my career so far and that made it easy to stay."

With the players’ pre-season return less than a month away, Arter is currently recovering from an injury setback he suffered whilst away on international duty with Republic of Ireland.

But, as his treatment progresses and he steps up his rehabilitation, he says he hopes to be fit and firing when the players return to prepare for another season in the top flight.

"Hopefully I can give a little bit more to the team than I was able to last season,” he added.

"I am really looking forward to pre season and hopefully staying fit. I want to repay the club for giving me a longer contract.

"The future for the club can be anything we want it to be, whilst being realistic.

"There is a lot of hard work ahead but from what we have achieved from where we were a few years ago is incredible.

"To get promoted to the Premier League was probably one of the biggest achievements the club will ever have, so if we did finish top half, I think this club is definitely capable of that and it wouldn’t be the biggest shock. 

“We can definitely aim to be in the top half and see where that takes us."