Sunderland have today allowed us to safely predict who will become the most carded player in Premier League history, having renewed captain Lee Cattermole's contract until 2021.
Cattermole is just 27 and has been playing Premier League football since 2005 with Middlesbrough, Wigan Athletic and Sunderland. In that time he has played 228 games, picking up 79 yellow cards and seven reds. That means, on average, he picks up a card every 2.65 games.
Should he stay injury free, he will play a maximum of 228 games, meaning that he should reach another 86 cards, doubling his current amount. While it is unlikely that he will play every single Premier League game for the next six seasons, this is offset by the inevitability that he will slow down, meaning an increase in late tackles upon more lithe and nippy opponents, thus likely increasing his yield of yellow cards.
Gareth Barry holds the current record for Premier League yellow cards with 105, while Duncan Ferguson, Richard Dunne and Patrick Viera have the most red cards with 8. Cattermole can surely feel the card-brandishing hand of history upon his shoulder.
The more card-happy referees are said to be thrilled at Cattermole's contract extension. Mike Dean has allegedly declared himself 'delighted', while rumours abound that Mike Reily is considering coming out of retirement.
To be fair to Cattermole, he has a respectful and magnificent dress sense, with shirt constantly tucked into his shorts. This earns him plenty of credit, unlike the slovenly, untucked Barry.
See Also: GIF: Baseball Player Releases His "Inner Lee Cattermole"
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/212937148" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
