Everton hero Alan Stubbs named as toughest player Martin Atkinson ever refereed
Martin Atkinson has named former Everton defender Alan Stubbs as the toughest player he has to referee in his whole career.
The Premier League referee is due to retire at the end of the season after 17 years in the top flight and says ex-Goodison hero Stubbs was the hardest he had to deal with, and says former Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky was his favourite.
Centre-back Stubbs spent five-and-a-half years as a Toffee, making 179 Premier League appearances, before returning in a coaching capacity for six more years after retirement.
At a Q&A for mental health charity If U Care Share, via The Mirror, Atkinson said of Stubbs: “He would kick anything that moved, was hard as nails and scared me to death when I first got on.
“He was just so tough to referee that it was, like, impossible. I learned a lot from that – you learn how to manage players.”
Imposing
When referees are actually freed up to speak in public it becomes clear why some apparently inexplicable decisions occur in games.
Despite having to impartially official hundreds of different players on different teams every year they are still ultimately individual people who have to communicate with all the players.
It is no wonder that some try to build up relationships with referees over time, or conversely to bully them into submission.
While it is possible to influence them players will continue to try to do so, although even that would struggle to account for some of the recent decisions the Toffees have been on the receiving end of.
Stubbs was the type of uncompromising centre-back that likely would intimidate officials newly promoted to the top tier.
While in the early days that kind of player would likely have a greater amount of sway over a referee, Atkinson no doubt grew to cope with it, and if anything would have been more susceptible to favouring Rosicky and the like later in his career.
Refereeing is a hard job, they are all professionals, and they would all no doubt say they they don’t favour any players or teams over others.
But they are human so subconsciously it must happen sometimes, and it is fascinating to get any insight into refs as people on the rare occasions it does happen.
In other Everton news, Graeme Souness doesn’t blame Frank Lampard for the club being in a relegation battle.
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