Superb referee Mike Dean deserves a farewell just as fond as Jeff Stelling's

Two outstanding careers will end when the final whistle blows on the current football season. One will be celebrated as enthusiastically and lovingly as it deserves to be. The other, regrettably, will not.

Let's start with the person who should make his last walk down the tunnel to the sound of cheers and compliments, but who will instead have to read grossly unfair and lazy slurs on his excellence if he is daft enough to put himself through the pointless pain of perusing Twitter.

Nothing exemplifies the woeful willingness of many people to base their opinions on what other people think, rather than bothering to form their own views, than the criticism that has accompanied Mike Dean's phenomenal 22-year career as a Premier League referee.

He has been a consistently superb official throughout that time, making and articulating decisions clearly and implementing new rule changes boldly and unflinchingly even when he knows it will make him unpopular.

His occasional tendency to gesticulate flamboyantly has been met with wildly disproportionate derision from fans even though a far more theatrical sport official, Dickie Bird, became almost universally loved by cricket followers for his shameless attention-seeking at every given opportunity.

Dean's unoriginal critics claim it's all about him, a tiresome accusation that simply isn't backed up by hard evidence. He is actually an excellent referee who deserves more respect for performing such an acutely difficult job so well for so long.

While Dean will have to make do with the occasional scrap of praise amid the torrent of imbecilic antipathy as his admirable stint winds down, it is comforting to know that Jeff Stelling will face no such lack of acclaim between now and the end of the season.

Stelling will present his final Soccer Saturday show in May, after which some poor person will be handed the nigh-on impossible task of filling his shoes.

It was in 1998 that Soccer Saturday adopted its current format and Stelling has not just been the anchor of the show ever since, he has been the show. It is Jeff's world and for a few hours every Saturday afternoon we willingly live in it with him, following the action, loving the interaction and finding out just which player would ruin our coupon at around 4.49pm without ever wanting to shoot the messenger.

Stelling has everything a TV personality needs – warmth, charm, wit and excellence. For six hours, an incredibly long time to be broadcasting live, he hosts what starts as a chat show, then switches to live drama and ends up as analysis. But while the pace and tone change through the afternoon, the humour and the professionalism never do.

It is little short of a miraculous piece of television and at the heart of it is the affable chap from Hartlepool who makes it all tick.

In the early days Stelling's panel consisted of the likes of George Best, Rodney Marsh and Frank McLintock, and they set the template, bringing us the oohs and the ahs as goals went in and penalties were missed, with a constant supply of authentic, unforced banter from beginning to end.

The ex-pros came and went. Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas, Matt Le Tissier and Paul Merson became regulars, and their bulletins from the big games were supplemented by the army of reporters around the grounds, who would keep us across everything that happened as we followed our teams' fortunes or hoped this might be the week for the big acca to land.

And, while the faces in the studio changed again last summer – much, it is reported, to Stelling's chagrin – he has remained as fluent and fantastic as ever. But while he makes it all look so ridiculously effortless, the reality is that he invests enormous time researching the multitude of games he has to cover every show.

And, while he benefits from the input of a researcher who is constantly filling his earpiece with facts and stats, he also has a level of knowledge that can only be acquired through many hours of meticulous preparation.

Rod Studd, the darts commentator who used to report on games for Soccer Saturday, says such is Stelling's astonishing work ethic that he could leave reporters stumped at times.

Studd said: "Jeff is amazing. He'd throw to you with something like 'and now over to Oakwell where Barnsley have gone nine games without victory but thanks to Jamal Campbell-Ryce with his second goal for Barnsley in a year they might just end that sequence', and you'd feel like replying 'thanks, Jeff, you've said exactly what I was going to say. I have nothing more to add'."

Ed Chamberlin, whose TV career began alongside Stelling on a Sky betting preview show called the Full SP, stood in for Stelling on the rare occasions when he was unavailable and also hosted the midweek equivalent of the Saturday show.

He told me: "I was the one who made everyone realise how brilliant Jeff was because I made such a hard job of doing it.

"It is undoubtedly the most challenging role in sport broadcasting. To do what he does for six hours every week is just incredible and takes so much preparation.

"As well as his stats man in his ear, he has a producer, a director and an assistant director, plus the reporters and studio guests of course, and he has to somehow process what they are saying while also focusing on what he is going to say.

"He is an outstanding broadcaster as well as being an extraordinarily nice man."

It is in that frantic final ten minutes of the 3pm games that Stelling is at his magnificent best, cranking up the tempo and the volume as the drama heightens and never missing a beat. It is, and has always been, a wonder to witness, and we should savour his awesome talent in the last few shows that remain, because life after Stelling will never be the same again.

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