HARRY Arter insisted he was happy to take on the role of ‘mentor’ for the club’s influx of young stars.

Arter, despite being only 26, is one of Eddie Howe’s longest serving players having been at the club since 2010.

And with the likes of Emerson Hyndman, Lys Mousset, Brad Smith, Lewis Cook and Jordon Ibe all under 23, Arter admitted responsibility of bedding in the new faces had fallen to the likes of himself and Marc Pugh.

Arter told the Echo: “We have quite a lot of new young lads and it makes me feel older which is quite strange.

“The manager has brought in a lot of younger players this year so there is an added responsibility, not just on the players who have been here for a long time but the more experienced players so I am happy to do that and hopefully I have been able to help them.

“It’s always going to take time for them to settle. We lost a couple of characters in terms of Tommy (Elphick) and Matty (Ritchie) in the summer so naturally the Chicago trip helped.

“We saw each other a lot and everyone brings something different to the group. We haven’t replaced Tommy and Matty with two similar characters but we have replaced them with good characters and the dynamic of group is similar to what it was last year.”

Meanwhile, Howe confirmed he was in no rush to thrust long-term injury victim Tyrone Mings into action.

Mings made his return to action following a year-long spell on the sidelines with an anterior cruciate ligament tear when Cherries lined up against AC Milan for Warren Cummings’s testimonial earlier this month.

The £8million defender also turned out for Cherries’ development squad earlier this week.

Howe said: “Ty is still a little bit away in my opinion. He played in midweek for the development squad but that was his second game in a year so we need to be patient with him.

“We don’t want to rush him in and break him at this point. He knows he needs to fully function in order to play.”