FOREST’S REALITY CHEQUE
Nuno’s side face points deduction for breaching PSR rules as Arter, without a squad number, collects £40,000 a week
OUT of sight doesn’t always mean out of mind.
Not this week anyway.
Not for Harry Arter or, more to the point, some irate Nottingham Forest fans who deem him a pantomime villain for lurking in the shadows while pocketing a reported £40,000-per-week.
For a club facing a potential points deduction over its financial affairs, it’s quite the wedge to be dishing out for, well, very little in return.
Republic of Ireland international Arter, 34, is still a footballer. But he’s a footballer without a squad number for the last two seasons.
And he’s a footballer who hasn’t kicked a ball for Forest since an FA Cup third round win over Cardiff City three years ago this month.
Since then, Arter has had brief loans at Charlton and non-league Notts County but he hasn’t played senior football – anywhere – since a 1-0 National League win over Dover in May 2022.
This is all relevant because Forest are in the news, facing a charge of breaching profit and sustainability (PSR) rules.
And Everton could lose more points after they too were charged with a further breach of the same rules.
The Premier League’s equivalent of Financial Fair Play says its clubs are not permitted to return losses greater than £105m over three seasons.
Forest have not been in the top flight for three years, so have been measured against Football League and Premier League rules, meaning their ceiling was capped at £61m.
Three short weeks after Arter was subbed off in the 63rd minute against non-league Dover, Forest beat Huddersfield 1-0 in the Championship playoff final at Wembley.
Securing a top flight return for the first time since 1999, the club that Brian Clough put on the map, and where Roy Keane (right) started out in England, were Premier League bound.
Not that Arter expected to play any part.
Since that promotion, Nottingham Forest have spent roughly £250m on 43 players.
And amid all the comings and goings, few expected Arter to still be hanging around having signed from Bournemouth in a £5m deal in September 2020.
But why wouldn’t he?
Forest – then managed in the Championship by Sabri Lamouchi – saw fit to arm a 30-year-old with a bumper three-year contract.
And a promotion clause in the initial deal has since triggered this additional fourth year, not to mention a pay rise that went with it. Lamouchi, as it happens, was sacked just 13 days after Arter’s arrival at Forest and Arter played just two games for the Frenchman.
Chris Hughton was the next manager in at the City Ground and Arter made 11 quickfire appearances for the former Ireland defender up to Christmas.
But that January 2021 FA Cup game against Cardiff was the last time Arter would be seen in a Forest shirt, after falling out of favour with just 14 appearances in total.
It prompted those loans to Charlton and non-league Notts County, with Arter telling the BBC at the time of his Magpies move:
“The level is not important for me any more.
“It’s just about trying to find some enjoyment, which hasn’t been there for a while with my situation at
Forest.
“There was no end goal at the end of the week, I knew I was never going to play at Forest. I don’t think I was registered for the squad going forward.
“To accept that was tough and with a move abroad falling through quite suddenly towards the end of the window, that didn’t leave me many options.”
When Cooper succeeded Hughton, Arter was so far down the pecking order the club didn’t bother registering him for that first season in the Premier League.
And nor was he registered this season and is therefore not an option for new Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo (left).
Forest have wanted rid of Arter for some time, and the player has been told across a number of transfer windows that he can leave.
The interest from abroad last summer that Arter referred to was in the UAE but after some sort of hitch, the midfielder decided to stay put and run down his contract.
Arter’s deal will eventually expire this summer and the 19-time capped Ireland international – he won his last cap against Qatar under Stephen Kenny (inset, bottom) in 2021 – will then face a decision.
Arter has trained – and played on occasion – for Forest’s Under-21s but hasn’t played a first-team game for anyone in 625 days. Retirement could be looming.
But if Forest are slapped with a points deduction in the months ahead, it won’t be because of Harry Arter and Harry Arter alone.
Equally so if Forest end up being relegated on the back of any potential sanction, it won’t be because of Harry Arter and Harry Arter alone.
He’s entitled to wind down the contract his employers handed him, as reality bites hard for them.
But after the week that was, and when reminders of his salary resurface and hit home to those stung by events, he’s an easy and convenient target for Forest’s keyboard warriors.
On the other hand, fans of rival clubs find it all so hilarious they can’t resist the jibes, with one Leicester City supporter taking to social media to promise Arter free drinks for life.
A separate post on ‘X reads’: “40k per week for Harry Arter was always insane and it does illustrate how divorced from reality these clubs are.”
Another was more cutting, but summed up Arter’s career right now: “Harry Arter haha jesus, I forgot he even existed.”
Fruits of the Forest, indeed.