Mike Dean is not the villain.. it’s the cynical play-actors who con him

THE one unfortunate thing about the Mike Dean pile-on is that the scheming, chiselling, diving, play-acting antics of the footballers involved have been relegated to afterthoughts.

Instead, Dean is the villain for being fooled by Anthony Martial’s dive, for being hoodwinked by Aleksandar Mitrovic’s histrionics.

Dean is football’s enemy for being conned by a player simulating a foul in the penalty area when his team were 6-0 up with five minutes left, for being duped by a grown man (inset) going down as though Anthony Joshua had landed one on him rather than having taken a gentle elbow-tap.

Mitrovic’s father once said his son would have been a “criminal or a kick boxer” had he not been a footballer.

He would have been lousy at both, judging by his collapse on Saturday. The problem is that when Dean looks at the monitor (top, left), he should be able to realise both Martial and Mitrovic are both trying it on.

But understandably, he becomes obsessed by the letter of the law. Having seen the video, he still believes Jan Bednarek made contact with Martial (it is a decent dive) so, by the letter of the law, has to send him off.

Having seen the video, he reckons Tomas Soucek deliberately raised an elbow and made contact with Mitrovic’s face (top, right) so, by the letter of the law, has to send him off.

After all, it is not Dean’s job to assess Mitrovic’s machismo. The theatricals also came late and it is not as though Mitrovic was trying to win a penalty or thought getting Soucek sent off might win Fulham the match.

It was just the very disagreeable, modern instinct. The default reaction of so many of today’s players is to try to fool the officials, full stop.

If that is a sweeping generalisation unfair to those who like to play the game honestly, then tough, because every team has plenty of con-artists and no manager, no team-mate, has the backbone to get a grip of them.

Bednarek’s red card was rescinded and there is every chance Soucek’s will be too. But while having a go at the easy target that is a demonstrative referee, remember one thing.

He may have got it wrong a couple of times but Mike Dean is not the villain here. The villains are the men who have conned him.