Mike Dean, who trended on twitter for what seemed like days and days following Man United's controversial victory over West Ham, has been demoted to the Championship this weekend.
His decision to send off Sofiane Feghouli was later rescinded, never a ringing endorsement of a refereeing performance.
He will take charge of a game involving the most happening team in Yorkshire, Leeds United. They play Barnsley this Saturday. The online community are treating this as their scalp and have reacted with joy. The supporters of Barnsley and Leeds United being a notable exception in this regard.
Will the Premier League miss Mike Dean for the time being? The general public are an unreasonable bunch when it comes to assessing the merits of referee. Let's look at the experts.
Keith Hackett was a referee from the 1970s until the early days of the Premier League, reffed at the 1988 European Championships, and worked as a referees assessor in the noughties.
Of late, he's been writing for the Telegraph, assessing the performances of the Premier League referees. In December, before the West Ham twitter-storm, Hackett ranked all fifteen refs from best to worst.
Contrary to the impressions gleaned online, Mike Dean is comfortably adjudged to be in the top half. Hackett ranked him 5th of 15th, noting that he "applies the law very strictly" and is unusual among referees in penalising grappling and jersey tugging in the box.
Dean enjoys a reputation for being a referee who relishes in making 'big decisions'. Relishes making them too much according to sore fans.
Read Hackett's assessments of the current crop of Premier League referees here.
