What me, dirty? Get yourself a good lawyer, Lee Cattermole

Jake: ‘asset or liability?’

Just when you thought being bottom of the Championship made you safe from such things, along comes a website that actually calls itself DirtyPlayers.co.uk and calls into question our fond collective belief that in Lee Cattermole, Sunderland have the most cultured, gentlest and fairest of players without thought of tripping, crunching, nudging or pulling back opponents.

But here it is, a survey on – their words – The Dirtiest Players EVER in the Premier League! (yep, capital initials and exclamation mark).

Let them tell the story – and then let Lee issue a writ for libel:

‘Hi, we have compiled the all-time card and sending off stats for EVERY player who has played in the Premier League.

www.DirtyPlayers.co.uk analyses and presents the full data for red and yellow cards for every player in each season of the Premier League since it began in 1992.

Using a ‘dirty points’ system of 25pts for a red card and 5pts for a yellow card, you’ll see some familiar names in the top 10 dirtiest players of all time’

Some headline facts are listed below:

* Gareth Barry has accumulated the most ‘Dirty Points’ in the history of the Premier League.

* Lee Cattermole is the dirtiest player based on number of appearances.

* Vinnie Jones was the dirtiest footballer for two consecutive seasons in ’94/’95 & ’95/’96

* Lee Cattermole and Joey Barton are the only two players to average more than 2 “dirty points ” per appearance throughout their Premier League careers

Premier League Dirtiest Players

* Top 10 dirtiest Premier League players
(all-time stats)

Gareth Barry
Lee Bowyer
Scott Parker
Paul Scholes
Patrick Vieira
Richard Dunne
Lee Cattermole
Wayne Rooney
George Boateng
Kevin Davies

** Top 10 dirtiest Premier League players
(based on number of appearances)

Lee Cattermole
Joey Barton
Vinnie Jones
Patrick Vieira
Danny Mills
Dennis Wise
David Batty
Carlton Palmer
John Moncur
Frank Sinclair

And now over the the Salut! Sunderland jury …

Click on this image to return to the Salut! Sunderland home page

5 thoughts on “What me, dirty? Get yourself a good lawyer, Lee Cattermole”

  1. There’s dirty as in tackles that are designed to take a player out of a game, or at least reduce effectiveness.

    There’s dirty as in sly underhand tricks and tactics which will get other players a red or yellow card, such as the use of whispered racist language or falling over and/or clutching the face when hit in the chest

    There’s dirty as in elbows when the ref’s not looking

    There’s dirty as in shirt pulling in the box at corners

    There’s dirty as in the so called professional foul – “taking one for the team”

    Then there’s not being good or fast enough, so players get hit instead of the ball. That’s not dirty, just the way things are when your opponents are so elite.

    And which of these get the cards?

    In my opinion the metric used above falls some way short of being a valid measure of dirtiness and I’m sure Zach would agree

    • and, by the way, why is one red worth 5 yellow? Please justify your decision, Dirtyplayers.co.uk…

      John Mac

  2. Bit of a unrealistic system to judge “dirtness”, Rodwell’s crunching tackle on Mousa Dembele’s knee last year against Tottenham deserves a little more then 5 points. Plus Diego Costa doesn’t get punished for a lot of what he does, like kicking Kaboul in the groin near the end of the 3-2 victory over Chelsea 2 seasons ago….Lee’s more of a “Hollywood” tackler!

  3. The vast majority of Catts red and yellow cards were given because of his reputation and were totally undeserved.

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