Mike Dean comments

[Muttley]

Used to love an extended ‘telling off’ as well, alongside big physical actions and gestures whenever he did anything, used to love calling players over making them wait and then giving the talking to knowing the camera would be on him.

He used to irritate me so much because I always found it unbelievable how often the referee received most of the screen time in his games.

This one is a grey area for me. Not with Mike Dean though as he did do exactly what you said for the reasons you said.

When I played football it was common for a referee to bring a player over, tell them to stop talking and them give them a lecture. I would love football to move back to that model we sort of see in rugby.

This one is circular. When the referees earn their respect then players will behave. All the time referees are self promoting and blatantly ignoring the laws of the game then they don't deserve the respect.

The good news is that Dean isn't helping his profession right now. He's adding more fuel to the fire against them.