Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger wants January transfer window scrapped

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has led calls for the January transfer window to be abolished to restore "decency" to a sport which is rapidly transforming into a business. Premier League clubs will this week meet to discuss closing the window prior to the start of the campaign, but the Gunners boss wants to go one step further by blocking deals in the middle of the season.

The north Londoners were one of several clubs whose season has been affected by activity in the transfer market, with Wenger attributing the 4-0 loss to Liverpool to the uncertainty regarding certain players. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lucas Perez were among the players to eventually leave The Emirates, while Alexis Sanchez was prevented from joining Manchester City.

Multiple transfer windows during a season ensures that speculation over potential deals often consume the campaign, with transfer news often eclipsing events on the pitch. Wenger, the Arsenal boss for over 20 years, believes that with players and clubs now more concentrated on money than ever, that the window should closed during the winter.

"The players who do not play or the players who are tapped up in October they already start again to think where do I go in January," he told beIN Sports. "That's not a way to be on board with a football club. I believe we have to realise that.

"We are here to entertain people and you can do that with people who are really on board together, to achieve something together and not every minute that it doesn't go well to think 'where can I go next?'

"I believe that we have to bring some decency (to the game). We all complain today that it (football) has become too much (a) business, but we can do something about it. We have that responsibility in the game. The ideal situation would be to have a transfer period that is closed 48 hours before the first game of the championship and to close it completely until after the season."

Many of the 20 Premier League clubs are said to be in favour of the transfer window in the summer closing before the season begins, with a majority of 14 required for the motion to be carried. However, no talks are understood to be have taken place about the January transfer window which runs for the first month of the year.

Arsenal consistently come under pressure to add to their squad and are regularly subject of gossip columns across the football media. Apart from being one of the biggest clubs in the world and playing in among the best paying leagues on the planet, their cash reserves of more than £100m means they can afford many players across Europe.

Next summer is not likely to be any quieter for Arsenal with five players out of contract come the end of the season. A further nine players are in a similar situation come the summer of 2019, but according to The Daily Mail the club have begun attempts to renew the contracts of a handful of those affects.

Danny Welbeck, Petr Cech and Aaron Ramsey are among those players who have already entered the final 24 months of their respective contracts, but Arsenal are planning talks to ensure the scenarios which played out this summer with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sanchez are not repeated.