Referee Mike Dean has named former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger as the most intimidating manager he has ever encountered, snubbing Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson.
One of the most recognisable officials in football, Dean, who became a Premier League referee in 2000, is set to retire at the end of the campaign and has been reflecting on the highs and lows of his 37-year career to BBC Sport.
When asked who the most daunting manager he ever faced was, the 53-year-old said: ‘It has to be Arsene when he was at Arsenal.
‘I always found it tough, not refereeing Arsenal in general but refereeing Arsenal when he was the manager. It was just his presence – he wanted the best for Arsenal all the time and if he could get any way of getting one over you, he would do.’
The duo were involved in one of the most memorable moments in Premier League history, when Dean sent Wenger to the stands at Old Trafford, after he had kicked a water bottle in frustration, only for the Frenchman to get lost and end up standing on top of the dugout with his arms raised in confusion.
Dean continued: ‘Since he has finished football, I have seen him, and he has been great. Cross the white line and everyone is different, like referees. We are normal people.’
This answer will have surprised some, with United’s former manager Ferguson often the go-to answer when it comes to the scariest manager debate, but Dean says that the Scot’s reputation was exaggerated.
‘He used to get a lot of stick saying he’d come in and bang the door down,’ Dean added. ‘He would come in now and then to express his views if something had gone really badly, but he wasn’t as bad as people made him out to be.’
Dean also spoke of the players who intimidated him the most, singling out former Red devils and Arsenal captains Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira: ‘You had massive, big-personality players, the Keanes, people like that, Vieira – they were all around then.
‘For me to come from the Football League to the Premier League and referee those players… it was just a massive step. I was a bit nervous and a bit scared of making a decision.’
But he was also complimentary of several players, picking out Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry as his favourites and naming Man City’s title decider against QPR in 2012 as the best game he ever refereed.
‘Bearing in mind what was at stake, I don’t think it will ever happen again – a team winning on goal difference with the last kick of the match,’ Dean said.
‘Unfortunately, it [booking Sergio Aguero for his celebration] had to be done. [If he was already on a yellow card] I’d have totally not done it. I’d have told the bosses, “think of the bigger picture”.’
