CHERRIES midfielder Harry Arter has revealed that former Liverpool star Jamie Redknapp was one of his biggest boyhood heroes.

Redknapp made more than 300 appearances for the Reds after joining them in a £350,000 move from Cherries in January 1991.

He became the youngest player to represent the club in Europe and was capped 17 times by England during his 10-year stay at Anfield.

Barton-on-Sea-born Redknapp, who was schooled at Twynham in Christchurch, joined Cherries as a trainee under his father Harry.

Arter told the Daily Echo: “Jamie Redknapp was a player I always admired when I was growing up. He was someone I always looked up to as a player. I felt he played the best football of his career when he was at Liverpool.

“I was only young and it was just the whole package with him. He was the perfect footballer in my eyes. He looked the part and certainly played the part.

“I know he was a Bournemouth boy but he also had connections with the London area, where I was growing up. I didn't really appreciate it at the time but for someone so young to move to the north of England to play for a club like Liverpool was a massive credit to him. If his career hadn't been plagued by injury, he would have been one of England's best players.

“He was the one who always stood out for me when I was growing up.”

In April 1995 - when Arter was just five - Redknapp helped Liverpool win the League Cup following a 2-1 win over Bolton at Wembley.

Arter, a second-half substitute in Cherries' first and third-round wins against Exeter and Cardiff, knows he could again miss out tomorrow.

But the 24-year-old said: “I will respect whatever the manager does. If I am not selected, I know what the reasons are. The lads who have got us here fully deserve to play in the next round and, as a squad, we support one another.

“I want the team to win every game and to be part of a squad that has reached the quarter-final is an achievement for me because I have never got past the third round.

“The lads who played against West Brom are part of the success we are getting in the league and would walk into any other Championship team.

“Depth of squad has probably been a problem in the past for us but, if we want to be successful, we have to have strength in depth.”