Clément Turpin

But, uh, yeah, I, I don't think that, um, uh, I, I don't think I'd be pointing to Champions League referees and being like, "Yeah, they're perfect," 'cause they're, they're not.

Uh, Claire says, "Trossard's brother is good." Yeah, is it Clement, Clement Turpin, I think? Let me check that.

Yeah, Clement Turpin.

He, he's pretty good.

Um, he's a French referee.

And I, I kind of look towards are there examples where we find a better standard, and can we? And I think for the most part, a lot of Premier League fans are valuing the European refereeing system and find even though it's not perfect, they find it better.

We look at Clement Turpin as one of the gold standards, just like we'd look at, for example, a, um, a Pep Guardiola or like a top echelon.

Like I see examples of top excellence in refereeing that we've seen.

Fundamentally, it breaks down like, guys, are we having a very different conversation, by the way, about the major refereeing decisions when two of the games that we've had major repercussions and we've managed to win, and I'm really cautious of brushing it over because we've got the points when they are major mistakes that last year we dropped points in.

It is hard to define what makes a good...

It's like Clement Turpin, the French ref.

I think always, he's got that balance.

So it's quite hard to define why he does it.

Anthony Taylor is extremely different in character to Jose Maria Sanchez, uh, the Spa- top Spanish referee.

Clement Turpin is an extremely different exam- is extremely different in character to Szymon Marciniak, the Polish referee who refereed the 2022 World Cup final.

Um, so it's very difficult to say that there's a, a, it's f- and I don't think that there is, or I definitely didn't identify a character trait in all of them that, that, that, that led them towards refereeing.

But what I, what I will say is that one of the things I did identify that, that, that I found interesting was that they are all...

Mm.

Um, and that joy, that sense of, that thrill, that sense of satisfaction comes, manifests itself in different forms, so in different areas.

So Clement Turpin, the top French referee who refereed the 2022 Champions League final, um, he speaks about the joy of walking when he's blown the whistle, and he feels like he's done a good game, and both managers shake his hands, the players shake his hands, and he walks for those five or seven minutes from the, the middle of the pitch to the locker room.

It's just, like, the most addictive feeling.