Chronicle EditorLONDON. — Arsene Wenger wants the January transfer window scrapped with Manchester City set to return for Alexis Sanchez.
The Arsenal boss fears too many players are plotting mid-season escape routes instead of focusing on their football in crunch games. Sanchez, whose City switch collapsed on Deadline Day, has already made it clear that he wants Champions League football.
Wenger told beINSPORTS: “What’s happening now is that the transfer window is closed. September will be okay.
“The players who are tapped up in October, they already start to think: ‘Where do I go in January?’
“That’s not the way to be on board with the football club. We are here to entertain people. You can [only] do that with people who are on board together, with people who want to achieve something together.
“Not with people who, when things don’t go well, think: ‘Where can I go next?’.”
A string of players, who failed to force moves away from their clubs this summer, will again be looking for a way out in January. They include Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk, whose transfer request in a bid to join Liverpool was rejected by the Saints.
Chelsea’s Diego Costa, West Ham’s Diafra Sakho and Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez are also among the players who will try again to leave their current clubs in the mid-season window.
Wenger added: “You can’t have a player preparing for a vital football game and still be on the phone at 4 o’clock [saying]: ‘Do I go or not?’ or ‘How much is it?’, ‘Where do I go?’
“The ideal situation would be a have a transfer period that is closed 48 hours before the first game of the Championship [season] and to close it completely until the season after.” — The Mirror.
Online Reporter