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Dave Kitson has claimed Stoke City’s players "crossed the line" the night Aaron Ramsey’s leg was broken at the Britannia Stadium.

The Arsenal and Wales star took nearly a year to recover after being hurt in a challenge by Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross.

But Kitson, in his new column for the Sun, makes it clear he believes then Stoke boss Tony Pulis was really to blame for the incident, during a Premier League game on February 27, 2010.

Kitson, who was on the Stoke bench that night, says: “I was there when Ryan Shawcross snapped Aaron Ramsey’s leg in half. And the build-up to the game contributed to the moment.

“Stoke manager Tony Pulis absolutely despised Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, hated the way he played.

“All week I had never seen a manager so desperate to win a game of football, it was bordering on out of control.”

Kitson was one of Pulis’s first signings after the Potters won promotion to the Premier League in May 2008, arriving from Reading that summer in a record £5.5m deal, but the relationship between the two men soon turned sour. Just last month, he admitted to still hating Pulis, and claimed the feeling was mutual.

Recalling the build-up to the Arsenal game, Kitson said: “Like every other game he was telling us to get at them, all the usual stuff managers say.

“But that particular game it was very much, ‘Lads, don’t forget, be aggressive in the tackle, dominate your man’. That was the message.

“It started that sort of feeling where it began to bubble within the players through the course of the week until finally it got to match day. The changing room was full of aggression and I remember the team talk more than anything.

“I remember Pulis pacing up and down shouting random things — this bundle of nervous energy blurting random swear words, trying to burn off his own nervous energy.

“And, of course, the upshot of all of that energy was that we went over the top and it cost Ramsey a year of his career.

“It seemed to me that was as a direct result of players reacting to their manager’s over enthusiasm and buying into that whole thing and carrying out his instructions and crossing the line.”

Kitson insisted Stoke’s players had not gone out to deliberately hurt anyone, but added: “Teams are a direct reflection of their manager. Without exception… but it just went too far.

“His desperation to beat Wenger and justify his way of playing football crossed the line. Some of the tackles we would put in — myself included because it was asked of you — were shocking really.”

Kitson, who made 34 appearances for the Potters before leaving to join Portsmouth in 2010, says he was never the same player after witnessing Ramsey’s horror injury.

He explained: “I distinctly remember Wenger turning around in the technical area absolutely horrified by it.

“The first person he looked at when he turned around was me on the bench because I was in line with him.

“Wenger gave me this look of complete and utter disappointment. It was as if he was saying to me ‘I’m surprised that you would be a part of this’. That’s how I felt. I was totally embarrassed.

“Prior to that happening I was probably quite a tough footballer and a tough man. But, in that split second, Wenger gave me that look and I lost something inside of me.

“I thought there is more to life than this. This was not the reason I became a footballer and I really didn’t want to be included in this or put my name to this.

“I carried on for a bit after that but I just lost my stomach for it in the end. I would rather not be a footballer at all than have to play that way.”

Despite his dislike for Pulis, Kitson admits he was a success at Stoke. He said: “Success for Stoke City was staying in the Premier League and he achieved it. So whatever you say about him, he was a successful manager for Stoke.

“He knows how to win football matches. He finds a way to win, that’s the mark of a good manager. It’s just the way that he went about it, I didn’t want to be a part of it.”