More on Dean’s loose lips from Barry Glendenning in yesterday’s Football Daily: Dean appears to blow the whistle on himself over in-match game claims While Football Daily likes to think we have our finger on the cultural pulse, before this week we were oblivious to the fact that Jamie Vardy has his own podcast.
Called Jamie Vardy’s Having a Party, it is a far more sedate affair than the name suggests, given the only episode we have seen features our t1tular hero and his sidekick the comedian Josh James listening to Mike Dean reminisce about his time as a referee.
While Football Daily can’t think of any social gathering that wouldn’t be enhanced by the presence of a 61-year-old former match official from the Wirral on its guest list, this isn’t so much a party as an occasionally awkward conversation.
Its claim to be “a hilarious look back at Mike’s career at the heart of English football” is as bold as it is false, but what the episode lacks in laughs it has more than made up for in controversy.
During the course of the chat, Dean revealed to his hosts that in the pre-VAR era he and his assistants used to keep themselves amused by playing little games within games of top-flight football.
“We used to say: ‘Right, we’ll kick off now, right?
See how long we can go without blowing a whistle’.
Done that a few times in the Premier, before VAR obviously.
Went 20-25 minutes without blowing a whistle a few times.
Let it go, let it go, let it go.” Dean went on to tell his inquisitors that he also used to see how long he could go without leaving the centre-circle while games were being played around him, claiming that he once set up camp in one for almost 15 minutes.
“That was just me joking about,” he honked, promptly eliciting not entirely convincing laughs from a clearly surprised Josh and Jamie.
Read the Football Daily in full: Football Daily | Mike Dean appears to blow the whistle on himself over in-match game claims
