Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger supports plan to shorten transfer window

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Arsene Wenger has thrown his weight behind the plan of some Premier League clubs to end the summer transfer window before the start of the next season.

The next meeting of Premier League chairman on 7 September will see a discussion of the idea to bring forward the end of the window, so that the first few weeks of the season are not dominated by transfer distractions.

Wenger has always been a manager more interested in the football itself than in its associated dramas and, for that reason, he wants the window to shut before the whistle blows.

“I support it of course,” Wenger said of the new plan. “For the regularity of the season, it’s better because you can have a player who you could play against three times if the transfer window is not closed when you start the season. That doesn’t look normal.”

Wenger pointed to the fact that transfer sagas that drag into the new season can distract players, teams and fans from the start of the season itself. It would be fairer to have all these matters settled first. “For the psychological comfort and focus of the manager,” Wenger explained. “It’s difficult to start the season with a team and have some players in the squad who are not completely on board. You can understand that, once everyone’s on the train, they stay on the train.”

Of course, if the Premier League were to stop transfers in the middle of August that could give European leagues another two weeks to do deals in the second half of that month. But Wenger said that teams in that position should focus on getting their deals done in June, July and early August. They can have no excuse when the season kicks off.

“Would it give some foreign clubs an advantage? No, not really because you have enough time,” said Wenger, who argued that Premier League clubs could easily adapt to a slightly shorter window if they had to. “I spent my whole summer in the transfer market, we basically had 10 weeks. What people will do is adapt. What makes them decide is that there is only three or four days to go and suddenly everybody comes out of the bushes to say, ‘Yes, we are alive, we are here and we want to buy’. If the timing is shorter, they will adapt to that as well.”