Premier League referees have a pretty tough gig.

It's their job to officiate 22 footballers who are desperate to win each week in front of tens of thousands of supporters who complain and abuse you for every decision you make.

Yes, they're probably well rewarded financially but is there another job in the world where you get as much abuse and scrutiny by so many people? Probably not.

If an entire stadium calling you a w**ker for 90 minutes isn't enough to make you cry then what about players screaming in your face?

In fairness, dissent in the Premier League isn't as big of a problem as it used to be.

Just check out how Manchester United players reacted when Andy D'Urso awarded a controversial penalty against them...

But who are the worst players to manage in Premier League history?

Well, we've discovered quotes from six of the league's finest officials down the years who told stories about trying to control some of football's bad boys.

Interestingly, one name cropped up on three occasions...

Michael Oliver - Craig Bellamy

On Bellamy: “Craig Bellamy was incredibly difficult. I watched him for two or three years — I’m a Newcastle fan and you wanted him in your team because he was a winner. But he was a nightmare to referee because he would argue about everything. If you told him it was black, he’d tell you it was white.”

Mark Clattenburg - Craig Bellamy, Roy Keane, Jens Lehmann & Rio Ferdinand

On Bellamy: "I knew my relationship with him was on sticky ground when he squeezed my balls in the tunnel at the Etihad, and I don’t mean my match balls.

“He would snarl at you and throw his arms around, constantly challenging you. His language was awful, just plain rude. As a referee, it is difficult when you have a problem player like that because you are drawn to him and it’s a distraction."

On Ferdinand: "I found him difficult to referee during that Fergie era because he was always trying to play mind games. He tried to get under your skin, probably to get that next decision. He was such a difficult player to referee as he was always in your face. When I got older and a bit more wiser, he probably left us alone more."

On Keane: "Roy was physical, hard and you couldn't trust him. Look at the tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland for example. You never knew what he was going to do next. He always came across as stone-cold and wanted to be the hard man."

On Lehmann: "I used to find Jens Lehmann such hard work. He was always difficult because he'd always whinge about people stepping on his toes in the penalty area. A corner would come in and they would give him a little nudge and he'd go ballistic and push players and have arguments with referees. He was always a difficult one."

Howard Webb - Craig Bellamy

On Bellamy: “Not long after the 2010 World Cup, I was fourth official at Anfield and was sitting quietly on my own at the back of the technical area.

"Bellamy was on the bench for Liverpool, and happened to catch sight of me sitting behind him. ‘Oi you, f***ing s**thouse,’ he yelled. ‘You f***ed up that World Cup good and proper, didn’t you, eh?’

“Not wishing to lower myself to his level with a similarly snide retort, I pretended I hadn’t heard. However, I remember thinking at the time there weren’t many more obnoxious players around than Craig Bellamy.”

Martin Atkinson - Alan Stubbs

On 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."

Jeff Winter - Ian Wright & Alan Smith

On Wright: "I remember when my career was actually over, two weeks after the FA Cup final, and Wright was playing in a Legends match. He came on and the minute he came on, I thought, ‘Oh, shit.’ It was a Legends match but the game totally changed straight away because he was in my face, screaming and moaning.”

On Smith: “My lasting memory of him on a football pitch was obnoxious, foul-mouthed, disputing every decision, in the days where the cameras were into the players’ faces; effing, blinding, screaming, shouting. Smith epitomised that type of player."

Mike Dean - Roy Keane & Patrick Vieira

On Keane & Vieira: "I got in the Premier League in 2000 when I was 31, 32, and you had massive, big personality players the Keanes, people like that, Vieira, they were all around then. It was just a massive step, and I was probably in awe of them as well to be fair. [I was] probably a bit nervous and a bit scared of making a decision."