Mike Dean caused havoc this week when he went on a podcast and made some horrific admissions about his work on VAR. He admitted he hadn’t told his “mate” Anthony Taylor to go to the monitor in Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Spurs after Marc Cucurella had his hair pulled blatantly.
He went on Sky Sports today to try to defend himself, and inevitably made everything so much worse. You’ll have to see it to believe it, honestly. His logic in defending himself is almost as confusing as his logic for why it was better to not tell his colleague to look at the incident again.
You can see the debate in the clip embedded here:
🗣️ “Ramifications though, Thomas Tuchel lost his job.”
Mike Dean and the Soccer Saturday Panel address the controversy surrounding his recent comments on the decision not to send Anthony Taylor to the VAR monitor in last season's 2-2 draw between Spurs and Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/GiYjn7ExDh
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 26, 2023
On the one hand, he’s only putting words to what everyone who watched the game could plainly see. But oh my how bad he makes himself and the league’s officials look in the process. These guys are relied upon to apply the rules dispassionately and he’s revealed that, apparently, off-the-pitch relationships factor into decisions—which is absolutely scandalous.
To make matters worse, the two points we dropped as a direct result of his non-call cost us a tie with Crystal Palace in the final tables. With the difference between each place worth approximately £2 million that’s a very costly call to consciously throw Tottenham’s way! Maybe if it were taken out of his paycheck he’d be more focused on the game at hand and not his mate’s delicate feelings!