You Watt? Former Arsenal starlet shown red card for most ridiculous reason ever

Former Arsenal academy product Sanchez Watt received possibly the most ridiculous red card of his career on Tuesday evening.

Now playing for Hemel Hempstead Town in the National League South, the 27-year-old was booked by referee Dean Hulme during a clash at East Thurrock for kicking the ball away.

When asked for his name Watt replied “Watt”, obviously, but Hulme misheard it as “What?” assuming the striker was being facetious and showed him an immediate second yellow card for dissent to the bemusement of Watt, his team-mates and the club’s fans

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Thankfully for Hemel, who were 2-0 up at the time thanks to goals from Watt and captain Jordan Parkes, the skipper intervened to explain to referee Hulme what was actually happening.

The official quickly reversed the red card allowing Watt to stay on the pitch (but still be booked) and play out the remaining few minutes with 11 players. It may well be the shortest red card ever.

The 2-0 win took Hemel up to fifth in the table, into a play-off spot and seven points off Dartford in top spot.

Hemel’s Twitter account summed it up in three confusing tweets: “Red card: Sanchez Watt is sent off, presumably for dissent.

Then: “And all of sudden the colour of the card changes to yellow. A rather bizarre incident all stemming from the decision to award Thurrock a goal kick despite a clear touch from a defender before the ball went out.

Before: “Just to clarify, Hemel still have eleven men.”

Watt never hit the heights of his potential after scoring on his debut for the Gunners in a league Cup clash against West Brom back in 2008. Regular first-team football never came and after a string of loans to Championship and League One clubs he was released and joined Colchester United in 2013.

From there he moved to Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League before returning to the UK to play for Crawley, Billericay Town and then join Hemel earlier this year.

Weirdly this appears to be the first case of this happening for Watt. May next time he’ll just go for his full name when asked: Herschel Oulio Sanchez Watt