BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks has blamed referee Mike Dean for Southampton’s embarrassing 9-0 defeat against Leicester City.
Dean is understood to have been the VAR for the match and gave on-pitch referee Andre Marriner the advice to send off Ryan Bertrand early in the first half.
Crooks disagrees with the decision and feels that Bertrand’s challenge on Ayoze Perez was not worthy of a sending off.
As quoted on the Leicester Mercury, the pundit said:
I thought at the time the sending-off Ryan Bertrand was a harsh decision but when I discovered Mike ‘clever clogs’ Dean was behind VAR in the Southampton versus Leicester fixture I wasn’t surprised.
There wasn’t one pundit in the BBC Match of the Day studio or anyone on the pitch at St Mary’s who would have sent Bertrand off for the challenge on Perez. And why? Because they recognised and understood the conditions.
Quite apart from destroying what would have been a perfectly good contest for the viewing public, he’s instigated huge embarrassment to the club, its players and put a manager’s career on skid row – all on a whim.
Does Crooks have a point?
READ SOUTHAMPTON VERDICT
It was a poor challenge from Bertrand, whose first touch let him down and allowed Perez to get the ball before him.
Crooks does make a good point about the conditions. It was raining heavily and the surface was extremely wet and slippery, which added to the drama.
But it seems Crooks has some sort of personal agenda against Dean because there weren’t many complaints about the dismissal from Southampton fans.
