Mark Clattenburg has insisted that Michael Oliver is no longer the best referee in the Premier League and has named the official who he believes has taken the crown.
Clattenburg called an end to his time as a professional referee back in 2017, having officiated in England’s top-flight for 13 years prior.
He’s since embarked on a new venture as a referee for popular TV show Gladiators, while keeping an eye on his former colleagues when they’re officiating.
Now, he’s suggested that Oliver is no longer the top dog when it comes to officials in the Premier League and gave a brutally honest reason as to why that is.
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, Clattenburg said: ‘If you asked me a month or two ago, I would’ve said Michael Oliver. But Michael’s really struggling after that challenge in the FA Cup – he shouldn’t be missing that.
‘He shouldn’t need VAR to see the goalkeeper coming out like that. I like Michael because he’s like me. He wants to manage games, the players like him, he interacts… but the game has changed so much.
Mark Clattenburg has insisted that Michael Oliver is no longer the best referee in the league
Oliver was criticised for missing an incident during Millwall and Crystal Palace’s FA Cup clash
‘There’s no characters on the pitch anymore. When I was a referee, we had great characters. What I’m watching now, I don’t see players with character. And so the referee’s haven’t got any character. So, now it’s very sterile.
‘Looking at the best referee at the moment, [it would] probably be Anthony Taylor. I like Chris Kavanagh – he’s a good referee. Sam Barratt, one of the new referees.
‘What’s interesting about him is that Sam’s an ex-player. And what you can see when you analyse is that you can see he’s an ex-player. And he understands the game’.
Oliver came under scrutiny for missing the straight red card for Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts which left Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta requiring 25 stitches.
Oliver faced criticism following that fixture for how he originally handled Roberts’ head-high challenge on Mateta.
That included from Palace chairman Steve Parish, who questioned why the 40-year-old needed to rely on being sent to his pitch-side monitor to see it was a red card.
As a result, the 40-year-old was left off the following set of league fixtures.
Oliver did not feel Liam Roberts’ challenge on Jean-Philippe Mateta was worthy of a red card
VAR then intervened to encourage Oliver to check his VAR monitor before changing his mind
Clattenburg insisted that Anthony Taylor (pictured) is the best official in the top-flight
Elsewhere on the same podcast, Clattenburg opened up on his furious clash with ex-Southampton and England star Adam Lallana 11 years ago.
Clattenburg, who was the match referee for Southampton’s 2-1 defeat by Everton in 2014, was accused by Southampton of using ‘abusive and insulting’ language towards their captain before eventually being cleared of misconduct by the FA.
In Saints’ complaint to PGMOL, the governing body responsible for referees, it was claimed Clattenburg had told Lallana after the match: ‘You are very different now, since you’ve played for England – you never used to be like this.’
According to Clattenburg, Lallana tried to put water under the bridge on the opening weekend of the following season, after signing with Liverpool for £25million from Southampton in the summer of 2014.
