Referee Mike Dean picks out Spurs v Villa incident as ‘the most bizarre thing’ he’s ever done

Referee Mike Dean has picked out his famous Tottenham v Aston Villa celebration as the ‘most bizarre thing’ he’s ever done.
The 51-year-old is well known for his unusual on-pitch antics, with exaggerated facial expressions and cheeky winks toward the camera commonplace.
Why did Mike Dean ‘celebrate’ Dembele’s goal? Five things to know…
- Tottenham beat Aston Villa 3-1 in a Premier League clash at White Hart Lane in 2015.
- The goal came about in the third minute thanks to Mousa Dembele.
- But the goal was only possible thanks to Dean playing advantage following a foul.
- However, because the foul was committed inside the box, Dean technically should have given a penalty.
- The referee, who is actually a Tranmere Rovers fan, has now revealed he was merely showing relief that Dembele scored and his mistake went unnoticed.
However, he really broke the mould during a 2015 Premier League clash between Spurs and Villa, appearing to celebrate a Mousa Dembele goal by pumping his arm having played advantage.
OUTRAGEOUS! Referee Mike Dean Celebrating Spurs goal vs Aston Villa #spurs #astonvilla pic.twitter.com/fIOJX1Nldc
— FootballVita (@_FootballVita) November 3, 2015
Asked on the Peter Crouch Podcast what was the most ‘Mike Dean’ thing he’d ever done, the whistle-blower responded: “Probably the stupid Tottenham vs Aston Villa advantage about four years ago.
“I’ve played on and you don’t play on when it’s in the box because its either a pen or you don’t do [anything].
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“When it’s gone in the back of the net I’ve just gone ‘that will do me’ but I’ve pointed to the centre circle and didn’t realise I was doing it that much until it showed it on the screen and one official said ‘have a look at the TV’.
“I thought ‘f****** hell, we are going to get a bit of a b********* tomorrow I think!’ That’s the most bizarre thing I have ever done.”
‘We ended up killing 140,000 chickens a day’
Dean has been a full-time Premier League referee since 2000. However, before making the jump, he worked at a chicken factory to stay afloat financially while he was only a part-time referee, even admitting he used to kill up to 140,000 of the birds per day.
“I worked in a chicken factory for 16 years, worked on the shop floor dealing with the insides of a bird,” Dean added. “Then I moved up to the supervisor at the business end where they came in and we had to kill them.
“On one shift we ended up killing 140,000 chickens a day. I was doing refereeing anyway like local stuff and I would do both jobs. I would start in the factory at 6 am do my shift until 2 pm, go home get my bag drive to wherever, go and referee and get up again at 3 am and straight back into work at 5 am.”