Arsene Wenger has called for the winter transfer window to be scrapped to help protect football’s “decency” and hinted that he expects further internal disruption ahead of the reopening of the market in January.

The wider issue will be discussed at a Premier League meeting on Thursday amid a proposal to close the summer window once the season starts but Wenger would like to go even further and wants no buying and selling of players at any stage of the competition.

At Arsenal, Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere are now in the final year of their contracts but Sanchez almost left on deadline day following a £60 million bid from Manchester City while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was sold in the closing days of the window after also refusing a new contract.

Wenger’s message about wanting players focused even when the team struggles also felt like a coded message to some of his own players.

“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?’” said Wenger.