‘Don’t be silly’ - Simon Jordan explains why Everton manager Sean Dyche was booked in derby

Simon Jordan reckons that Sean Dyche was booked in Everton’s Merseyside derby loss because referees are trying to wrestle control back this season.

The Toffees’ 2-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield last Saturday was shrouded in controversy, with many arguing that referee Craig Pawson’s performance lacked consistency. Ashley Young was sent off for Everton in the 37th minute for two yellow card offences - yet Reds defender Kostas Tsimikas avoided a booking for a similar challenge that brought Young’s first caution.

And in the second period, even Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted Ibrahima Konate could have received his marching orders when the game was still goalless. Konate brought down breaking Everton striker Beto yet was not given a second booking. Dyche earned himself a caution for his remonstrations, though, which he was left left him perplexed. Liverpool would go on to win the game through a Mo Salah double.

Speaking on talkSPORT, former Crystal Palace chairman Jordan had sympathy for Dyche - but referees are now trying to win back control after a decade of managers ‘going apoplectic’ about ‘innocuous decisions’.

He said: “The only thing I would say because it's a difficult one and I don't want to condone poor decisions but the battle for refereeing is battling to gain some more control over the way players behave. The reason why Sean was given a yellow card was not because the fans inside the stadium were gesticulating but because he occupies a position of authority and that means he comes to a different standard to the fans.

“When he talks about how he was stunned he got a yellow card because he was doing what everyone else was doing, you're the manager of the football team, not a random sitting in the crowd that doesn't affect the outcome. You're part of the conundrum that referees are trying to get past which is a culture of respect, making the right decisions, being on the same page and trying to get a better outcome for football.

“On that side, I think: 'Sean don't be silly'. There's judgment in that and subjectivity. People could turn around and say it's irrelevant in the circumstances. If the referee considers him a person in authority - whether that be a player, a captain of a side or manager of the season - breaching the current protocol or guidelines of how they should behave, they're forced into the situation.

“I'm also on the other side of the argument because everyone is accountable and referees are no different. I've been an exponent that referees deserve more respect and value in the game and given that opportunity that everyone else seems to have to make mistakes but I also don't want it to go unnoticed. When I'm thinking Sean gets a yellow card for gesticulating, if I was the owners of the football club in the stadium I would have been apoplectic in the directors' box.

“It's a very difficult balance to strike between wanting to afford referees the courtesy and respect that position that should occupy then condoning poor decisions.

“The tragedy is we’ve gone to a binary choice where if you dare have any sort of conversation - the reason why Sean Dyche got booked for gesticulating is if you go back 10 years and watch how managers have behaved and what they’ve done, even in the most innocuous decisions going apoplectic because something has gone the way they think shouldn’t have gone, we now arrive at this ridiculous decision where exasperation over a decision that is clearly wrong meets a consequence.

“It is not really because of that, it’s because referees have had to endure managers going apoplectic - and players simulating, cheating and creating cultures that referees are the enemy - we’ve reached a situation where Sean Dyche gets a yellow card for what most people think it’s not a big deal. A referee could go over and say ‘zip it you’ and that’s the end of discussions.”