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Philippe Senderos joined Arsenal in 2003, just months after captaining Switzerland to the UEFA Under-17 Championship title.
Injuries hampered the start of his Arsenal career but he was eventually able to make his debut in the 2-1 Carling Cup victory over Manchester City in October 2004.
When a run in the first team emerged in 2005 the Swiss defender was impressive, going 12 games for club and country without conceding a goal - a sequence which lasted 1,184 minutes.
He was selected for the FA Cup Final that season and came third in the Club's Player of the Season poll. Senderos was still just 20 years old but his tenacity, aerial power and will to win all proved to be valuable assets for Arsène Wenger's side.
The following season he was part of a back four that kept a record 10 clean sheets en route to the Champions League Final. Senderos helped see off Real Madrid, Juventus and Villarreal before being selected by Switzerland for the World Cup in Germany.
In arguably his finest performance for the Gunners the centre back kept Kaka and Alexandre Pato quiet after replacing the injured Kolo Toure in the first leg of the Champions League tie with AC Milan in 2008 and then repeated the trick to see Arsenal progress at the San Siro.
The Swiss defender landed a prestigious loan move for the 2008/09 campaign, spending the entire season at the San Siro with Milan - who were no doubt impressed by those two displays just months earlier.
And after a frustrating, injury-hit start to life in Serie A, Senderos made 20 appearances and learned plenty from luminaries such as Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta.
But the impressive performances of William Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen meant first-team opportunities were limited when Senderos returned to Arsenal. And in January 2010 he moved on loan to Everton before completing a free transfer to Fulham that summer.
WHAT THE FANS SAID:
"For me Senderos's finest ever game in an Arsenal shirt was the Fa Cup Final in 2005. He was absolutely rock solid and didn't give the Man United strikers anything for the whole match. That was the game when the supporters started to think that maybe we could have a new Tony Adams on our hands here."
Tom Hodge, Polegate
