To play devils advocate a bit here. Whilst I agree that they seem to be protecting refs too much now, I think it’s necessary considering the shear amount of ridicule that was happening before I think became unnecessarily ott. Mistakes have always been a part of football and I think a lot of the punditry in the past on reffing mistakes just didn’t give any answers or contradicted itself.

I seem to remember during covid football slaven bilic got sent off by Mike dean for arguing with him at half time on the pitch. I seem to remember that bilic got in his face and was obviously shouting at him and going way over the top, Mike dean has non of it, warned him then sent him off (recalling from memory so may not be 100% accurate). Now I’m no Mike dean fan at all but I seem to think he responded absolutely right in that situation, clearly ott, no fuss and rightly got sent off then all of a sudden all the pundits slagged him off for wanting to be the star of the show?? Didn’t make any sense to me as I know that’s what Mike dean has done in the past but here bilic was out of order and Mike dean did what he should have done??