The transfer will be viewed with raised eye brows by some, pointing to the fact that he is 31 in the autumn. Granted he may not have time to challenge the Arsenal appearance record, but he still has a very important role to play at the club. There exists a popular conception that when Europe's best defence hang up their boots for a final time in will come four freshed 18 year olds who will in turn be the Arsenal defence for the next fifteen years. The truth is that very, very few defences stay together for 5 years, let alone 10. Youngsters like Matthew Upson and David Grondin will come in but Wenger will need more experienced players for them to play aside. This is where Luhzny will prove vital.

Wenger says that the signing of the man they nickname 'The Horse' is just the first in a number of signing that he hopes to make over the coming weeks. The squad reassemble in just over a month so evidently he will be anxious to make the signings ASAP in order that they can take part in pre-season training. It wouldn't be surprising if Wenger was to bring in a new left back over the summer. With David Grondin going out on loan to St Etienne next season and the boss declaring that Vivas is a right sided player we are left with just Nigel Winterburn. With the expanding Champions League and the fact that Matthew Upson is now officially a centre back it would seem only logical that a left back be bought in. There has so far been very little speculation concerning possible captures at left back- surely a good sign.

Rumours have continued surrounding the future of Olivier Dacourt. With Stephen Hughes apparently unhappy and Remi Garde's future seemingly up in the air a central midfield capture is not out of the question. Providing the price is right Dacourt does not seem such a bad idea. He is not (as yet) good enough to seriously challenge Manu or Paddy for their place, yet he would prove to be a very capable deputy. The fact that he is French is similarly important. Wenger seems to like the team to consist of three main chunks. There is the English defence, the French midfield (Paddy, Manu and Garde) and the Ajax attack (Bergkamp, Overmars, Kanu.)

Clearly Dacourt would fit nicely into the French midfield. Though he may not compete with Paddy and Manu in terms of footballing ability he does do on the disciplinary side. Last season he managed to amass more bookings than Vieira himself. He has age on his side and this suggests that in the future we could see Petit return to defence with Vieira and Dacourt as the central midfield. There is of course one major stumbling block when buying from another English club- the outrageous asking price.