'I didn't see it' – Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger
I couldn’t find an exact date for the above Arsene Wenger quote despite my best efforts, after devoting a full 12 minutes to googling instances of the utterance: 'I didn't see it'.
I knew it was impossible to pinpoint a date.
He said it when the Gunners netted a controversial goal in a 2-0 Premier League win over Hull City.
He said it when Laurent Koscielny's scored a stoppage time goal last season.
Wenger, as the gag goes has trotted the line out often when it was easier than giving an opinion on a controversial moment.
Last night Wenger deviated from the script, as he swapped: ‘I didn’t see it’ for ‘I don’t know what a penalty is’.
The Frenchman was left questioning ‘what is a penalty’ after his Arsenal side were beaten 1-0 by Cologne in the Europa League.
The only goal of the game came from the spot, Mathieu Debuchy will feel hard done by after Sehrou Guirassy took a tumble in the area with minimum contact.
Guirassy netted the resulting spot kick. Wenger believes an urgent clarification is needed from those responsible for running the global game.
He feels video technology alone won’t rectify the issues: “It looked like that [minimal contact] from outside yes.“It is something that is obvious now in the modern game that UEFA and FIFA need to sort very quickly out.
“We need a clear definition of what is a penalty and what is not a penalty. The video will not sort it out if they don’t do it.
“You will have five pundits who will say it was a penalty and five who will say it will not a penalty and it can create more confusion the video I think.
“It’s urgent that it becomes clear in everyone’s mind what is a penalty and what is not a penalty, nobody knows really any more”.
