The men, the cards, the ire: Farewell Mike Dean, Martin Atkinson and Jon Moss

As if the drama levels of this weekend's Premier League finale needed any more stoking, Mike Dean, Martin Atkinson and Jon Moss are hanging up their whistles after the final round of games.

Whether you feel obliged to shed a tear for the men in the middle or gleefully dance a little jig is a matter of personal vendettas. Odds are, one of these men has served up at least one cold dish of card cruelty to your team.

Nevertheless, upon the veteran trio's imminent last dances, we briefly bid them a proper adieu. For all the carnage, there will always be the memories. Good and bad. Such is life.

Where will football be without Mike Dean, the man who has remarkably made flourishing colour-coded cards to teeth-seething grown men an artform since his debut in 2000?

And it is a flourish. “Deano” does not merely hand or dish out cards. One cannot use such simple forms of issuing when it comes to the parking-attendant-level zeal with which Mike Dean has presented an unprecedented 114 red cards, 2,026 yellow cards and 184 penalties in 559 matches (and, almost inconceivably, still counting). It is wrist-flicks, no-looks and finger-wag flourishing only.

At times, you have to wonder if the honour of holding the dubious reputation of football’s (arguably sport’s) egomaniac referee ever grates old Deano, but the 53-year-old has seemingly taken the position and carved a gilded crown out of it.

In one sense, you have to give a man credit for managing without erring to seize the spotlight upon a stage in which those in his position generally try to fly as inconspicuous as possible. The grind is impressive, entertaining even. Football's equivalent to the dancing air traffic controller.

That is, for a neutral of course. Once Mike Dean has