Final whistle: goodbye to Mike Dean, the Premier League ref the fans love to hate

That most insistent of matchday questions, touching on mysteries of identity and masculinity – “who’s the wanker in the black?” – has rarely felt a more pointed psychological inquiry than when directed by 25,000 partisan voices toward Mike Dean.

Football referees have always been lightning rods for more general frustration with authority figures, but the Premier League era, with its overpaid pundits and its multiple camera angles, has amplified that discontent. Dean, the elite league’s most visible man in the middle for 22 years, has refereed 560 matches, dished out more than 2,000 yellow cards and a record 114 reds (at a significantly higher rate than any of his peers). He has also invited – and enjoyed – the attention that goes with that decision-making more than most.

Sunday’s final Premier League matches of a remarkable season, in which the champions and the final relegated side are yet to be decided, will also mark Dean’s farewell performance. He has been kept away from any potential controversy by refereeing the relatively inconsequential Chelsea v Watford game.

He had, inevitably, the very last word in the most thrilling final-day drama in Premier League history 10 years ago, when Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero scored a last-second goal to rip the league title away from rivals Manchester United. Dean’s memorably killjoy contribution was give Agüero a booking for removing his shirt during the euphoric celebrations. “I had no choice,” he later suggested. “Those are the rules.”

The old adage insists that the best kind of referee is the one you never notice. But anonymity has never seemed to be part of Dean’s ambition. There are multiple YouTube clips of his trademark moves – his habit of letting the ball run between