Arsene Wenger hopes transfer changes will end 'hectic' deadline day decisions after Arsenal's Thomas Lemar failure

1/28
James Benge25 September 2017

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has provided an insight into the chaotic final hours of the transfer window.

Wenger endured as stressful a deadline day as anyone last month, with Arsenal caving on Alexis Sanchez’s desire to move to Manchester City - only to pull the plug on his £60million transfer because they were unable to secure Thomas Lemar as his replacement.

Arsenal had had a stunning £92m bid accepted after several offers had been rejected by Monaco earlier in the summer, but were unable to agree personal terms with Lemar.

The Gunners were among 14 clubs to vote in favour of moving the Premier League's transfer deadline forward to the Thursday before the start of the season.

The new regulations will be in place in time for the 2018-19 campaign, and Wenger is optimistic that an early closure will ease the "hectic" and confused nature of the window.

"I believe people will adapt by making their decisions early," Wenger was quoted as saying in the match programme ahead of the visit of West Brom to the Emirates.

"What happens now is that you’re contacted 48 hours before the end of the transfer window and someone say, ‘Are you still interested in this player?’

"You worked on that deal for three months, they closed the door and then suddenly they open it up again with two days to go. It’s all rushed decisions and very hectic in the last week.

"Once you go into the games as well, you don’t know if the players are speaking to their agents on the afternoon of the game or to other clubs, so they don’t focus on the game. It’s not right how it was."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in