Dortmund signed him in the summer of 2001 from Sparta Prague for whom Rosicky had already impressed us in matches against Arsenal in the Champions League of the preceding season. Sparta were very much the whipping boys of the first group stage but Rosicky, still a teenager, stood out as one to watch. Some of you may remember standing at Highbury to applaud his amazing consolation goal in the first of those matches (a 4-2 Arsenal win) when he cut in from the left and went round 3 Arsenal defenders before beating David Seaman with a great near post shot.

Clearly, Arsene Wenger has been keeping an eye on Rosicky's progress in Germany. There were persistent rumours about Rosicky back in the January transfer window this year. His agent claimed that there had been advanced talks with Arsenal, but of course one didn't know how much to believe it, and then the Theo Walcott deal happened to distract us.

Rosicky, now 25, has firmly established himself in Dortmund as a classy playmaker perhaps (dare we say it?) in the Dennis Bergkamp style. He already has 31 Champions League matches under his belt for Sparta and Dortmund combined, including another game against Arsenal, for Dortmund in October 2002, a 2-1 loss in which he definitely scored a penalty, and deserved credit for their other goal too with a whipped-in free-kick that took a slight deflection off of Gilberto on its way to sneaking inside the far post.

He's also had a few UEFA cup games (he got to the final in 2001-02, a season in which Dortmund also won the Bundesliga). He'd already won back-to-back Czech titles with Sparta back in 1999 and 2000 (although I guess that's expected).

He's also a firm fixture in the Czech national side, having made his full debut at the age of just 17, and having been in the squads for the 2000 and 2004 European Championships. He will be going to the World Cup in Germany thanks to his own winning goal in the second leg of their qualifying play-off against Norway back in November.

In the Czech Republic, Rosicky became the youngest ever Czech Player of the Year, back in 2000 at the age of 20. He won it again the following season.

This is no ordinary signing, but that of an extremely experienced and highly-rated player who could probably have picked his destination. Arsenal have once again shown great transfer-market acumen in setting this up back in January and securing it before the World Cup.

Arsene Wenger says, "We are delighted to welcome Tomas to our squad. He has great technique, skill on the ball and sharp passing. Tomas has good experience at all levels for club and country, and we look forward to welcoming him to Arsenal after what will hopefully be a successful summer for him at the World Cup."

and Rosicky says,

"I'm really happy to be here at Arsenal, it is a great day for me. The team showed its strength recently in the Champions League and it has big potential with a lot of young players, I think we can be even better next season. This is the best club in Europe and I will give everything for Arsenal."

Now the question is, do we have room for him and if not, how do we make it? If Rosicky is simply a replacement for Bergkamp then one has to remember that Bergkamp's not been playing much. If he's cover for Cesc Fabregas then one would be hoping that'd not be needed there much. Can he play on the wing? Either wing? Seems to me that as things stand, if Robert Pires does decide to stay, his opportunities as well as those of Freddie Ljungberg could become more limited. Even if we make no more signings, we've now got both the prospect of both Theo Walcott and Rosicky coming in to attacking positions next season, challenging Bobby, Freddie, Jose Reyes, Alexander Hleb, Robin van Persie, and Emmanuel Adebayor. Perhaps, also, we'll be seeing more of the 4-5-1 formation, so successful in this year's Champs League, in domestic competition.

It's worth pointing out that, despite his record of 3 goals in 3 games against the Arsenal, we perhaps should not expect a goalscoring rate comparable to a young Bergkamp or a Pires/Ljungberg type of midfielder. In 149 games for Dortmund over 5 years he scored a total of only 19 goals. His international record is somewhat better at 15 in 53 and in qualifying for the world cup this year he played every minute of their 12 matches, scoring 7 goals.