The Football Association have charged Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl over comments made after Saints defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago, Saints fans will know what the Austrian was talking about.

Mike Dean has been a thorn in Saints side with poor decisions over the past year, it was Dean who controversially sent off Jan Bednarek at Old Trafford last season when the watching millions on TV could clearly see that Bednarek had not touched Martial, with only 6 minutes left and Saints already losing 6-0, the result was never going to be changed, but Dean still had to be the centre of attention, the red card was overturned on appeal and to be quite frank Dean should have been suspended himself.

This is not the only controversial decision that Dean has given against Saints as he had also denied Saints a clear cut penalty in the home match against Aston Villa last season when Matty Cash handled and Dean on Var turned down the claims.

At Chelsea with Saints drawing 1-1 with the Blues and only 13 minutes on the clock, Dean changed the game by advising referee to look at the decision to give a foul against James Ward Prowse despite the fact that on field referee Martin Atkinson had already given a yellow card.

The truth is that it could have gone either way, there was a follow through but it was the type of tackle that we have seen go either way with some referee's choosing to see it as dangerous play and others genuine attempts to play the ball.

The decision turned the game and 10 man Saints went down to two late goals and a 3-1 defeat.

Once again it was Mike Dean who had to be at the centre of attention and many Saints supporters after seeing the replay of the tackle felt that there was no way Dean would have pulled up the ref to have a look had it been one of the Chelsea superstars.

Ralph Hasenhuttl clearly felt the same way and in an after match interview had this to say.

'I knew when Mike Dean was on the VAR that the referee would go and have a look at it," he told BBC 5 Live.

"I always have a bit of a problem when we know Mike Dean is on VAR because we don't have a good history with him, to be honest," he further reiterated when speaking to BBC Radio Solent .

It seems these two comments have got Hasenhuttl into trouble and an FA statement read:

'It is alleged that comments made by the manager during two post-match interviews constitute improper conduct in that they questioned the integrity of the VAR match official and/or implied bias and/or bring the game into disrepute.'

Hasenhuttl, who has been charged with two breaches of Rule E3, has until Tuesday, to respond.

Photo: Action Images

saintmark1976 added 12:35 - Oct 15 Nick, it wasn’t Dean who cost us, it was Ralph and his inability to react with the correct substitutions to enable us to see the game out at 1-1.
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JoeEgg added 14:51 - Oct 15 Have to agree saintmark. Bit it will not be long now - Ralph's time is running out and Eddie Howe will surely be the boss soon.
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ElijahK added 18:20 - Oct 16 Sorry but even as a referee myself, how the hell has he been charged as he’s not said anything that’s actually offensive or such, and does have a fair point, but ether way he’s said nothing in which would get you booked/sent off so how he’s getting fined for it is just baffling
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Billeewithers added 22:30 - Oct 20 Saints had progressed from being behind to looking the more likely to win V Chelsea and we are trying to say the sending off was Ralph’s fault. He failed to respond against a free spending club at the summit of the European game with a bench that arguably cost more than our entire club. It has failed to be pointed out that when Broya scored v Leeds he got deliberately taken out with no booking or review or subsequent slowmo dissection. Further in the man city game two clear No contact dives in the penalty area were completely ignored. Prowsey was clearly looking at the ball and showed no intent toward the player came across at high speed and despite an earth shattering scream was up and at it seconds later. Blaming Ralph for the inconsistencies of refereeing decisions which have forever shown demonstrable bias towards the big clubs is, in my view, widdling on ones own shoes. Saints have bounced back and beaten a Leeds side who were supposedly weakened....interestingly Saints had a similar number of players out but were not weakened? Ralph has had to work with relatively poor squads and is managing to turn even Redmond round. He is not without his blind spots but is without the top class players the the big guns have in abundance. Give him and yourselves a break!

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