Mike Dean, the Premier League ref fans despise, retires

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“Who’s the wanker in the black?” has rarely felt a more piercing psychological inquiry than when aimed at Mike Dean.

The Premier League era, with its pricey analysts and varied camera angles, has intensified referees’ anger. Dean has been the premier league’s most prominent referee for 22 years,

officiating 560 games and issuing a record 114 red cards (at a significantly higher rate than any of his peers). He’s also welcomed and embraced the attention that comes with decision-making.

Dean will play his last Premier League matches on Sunday when the champion and final relegated team will be determined. Refereeing Chelsea vs. Watford avoided any possible scandal.

Sergio Agüero struck a last-second goal to wrest the Premier League championship from Manchester United 10 years ago. Mike Dean booked Agüero for removing his shirt during the celebrations. He said, “I had no choice.” “The rules are”

The best referee is the one you don’t notice. Dean has never sought anonymity. There are multiple YouTube clips of his trademark moves – letting the ball run between his legs during play; the insouciant “no-look yellow card” in which he dishes out punishment without looking at the offending player;

celebrating a goal enabled by his decision-making as if he had scored it himself; dismissing Brighton’s 6ft 4in center-back Lewis Dunk with a self-satisfied “off you pop” Dean has always looked like a Hollywood extra who wants to be the star. “Mike Dean, it’s all about you,” goes another terrace cry.

Referees suffer because the Premier League is both an “entertainment industry” and a “multimillion-pound enterprise.” Decisions are subjective and crucial in theatre. How weekly demands affected Dean was unknown until recently. Referees’ voices are never heard in 24-hour football analysis.

Dean has broken his silence as the end of his career approaches, reminiscing with Peter Crouch and Match of the Day’s Mark Chapman.

The discoveries in those talks stopped short of soul-searching, but they did answer the concern of the more empathic football fan: why would anyone want to put themselves through that torture weekly?

According to an academic study, referees value the “passion of football” more than “power and control.” Most Dean-watchers would put them on par.

Dean was raised in Heswall, Wirral, where his mother was a lollipop woman for 35 years. He was a goalie as a youngster but never threatened to make the team. He left school at 16 without a job and began refereeing in the Eastham and District Junior Sunday League the following year to stay fit.

He worked in a poultry processing business for 10 years while playing in local and semi-professional competitions. (140,000 hens a day, he told Crouch.) Former center forward: “You moved from slaughtering fowl to calling fouls.

” Dean worked while playing in the minor leagues. “I’d start my shift at 6, then travel to Carlisle or Scunthorpe for a match, return at 3 a.m., and start again at 6.”

Dean gets an estimated £200,000 a year, a week’s wage for some of the players and managers he keeps in line, but a significant step up from the $17,000 of his prior day job and a world away from the few pounds a match earned by the thousands of referees who keep the game alive (numbers are currently in alarming decline). Despite a significant professional motivation,

the post remains the concept of Sir Stanley Rous, a referee before becoming Fifa president: “It’s a job for volunteers delivering a service to the country.”

Dean’s main antagonists are typically club managers whose jobs are on the line, whereas Rous’s were often elbow-happy forwards. Arsène Wenger was his most tenacious opponent, not Sir Alex Ferguson.

Dean sent Arsene Wenger to the stands for throwing a bottle of water in anger; Wenger stood with arms spread like Christ the Redeemer among jeering Manchester United fans. Neil Warnock, another managerial foe, said he wouldn’t send Dean a retirement card since he’s cost him so much.

Post-game recriminations may promote nastier behavior. Dean sends out West Ham player Tomá Souek during a draw with Fulham in February 2021. His family got death threats. They threatened to petrol bomb our home since they knew where we lived.

He reffed fewer games. I was surprised to receive West Ham four weeks later. Souek was nice when I apologized.

Ironically, Souek’s dismissal was based on VAR evidence (VAR). The method was supposed to decrease human mistakes, but it’s increased debate. Dean told the BBC, “I disliked VAR at first.”

“I’d officiated 19 years without anyone instructing me what to do.” His viewpoint shifted. “I’d rather go to the screen and make the proper judgment than drive home and get beaten by the press.” He omits the third option: going to the pitch-side monitor and getting it incorrect.

You would think weekly tensions wear a man down. 53-year-old Dean Watching him supervise Leeds United’s relegation battle against Brighton last week, he effortlessly kept up with superb young players. He’s not immortal. Dean looked like a deputy headmaster who recalled rationing at age 31.

It’s impossible to image referees at leisure, like certain buttoned-up instructors. The finest YouTube footage shows Dean leading Tranmere Rovers’ play-off victory celebrations. (Does he criticize referees as a fan?) Yes!

Dean can’t think what he’ll do with his afternoons after retirement. In interviews, he’s mentioned that he used to ballroom dance (crucial for that vital refereeing skill of running backward without falling over). He’s the bookies’ favorite to enter the jungle.

Another alternative will put Dean back in the spotlight, maybe forever. He’s reportedly exploring a VAR job. Old referees don’t die; they climb to Sky’s Super Sunday’s Stockley Park.

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