From being the perfect depiction of your big bad defensive roadblock mainly skilled in stopping opponents in their tracks to a veteran deemed surplus to requirement in a struggling Rangers FC squad, it is safe to say Switzerland defender Philippe Senderos failed to live up to his potential.
The 32-yeaar old started his career at Swiss side Servette before being picked up by Arsenal. After getting the crowd excited with his no-nonsense approach to protecting his goalie, frequent sloppiness which later racked up to a litany of errors made him earmarked as unreliable.
After leaving the Gunners having found first team appearances and likewise his manager’s trust far and between, the Swiss was able to find an abode with Fulham as he made 57 premier league appearances over four seasons – still poor given his earlier promising image at the Emirates.
Subsequent moves to 4 other teams brought more ridicule on his career stats. For example, a certain Rodrigo since Senderos left Valencia has had 75 La Liga appearances for Los Che while the Swiss has been able to garner only 17 league appearances spreading over three teams.
The most embarrassing of all his spells remains the last one where he only managed 3 appearances for a whole season in a league as low in terms of quality as the Scottish
When Senderos was busy marshalling Arsenal’s defence in Paris as they battled with Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona for the Champions League crown 11 years ago, wishes being horses would have demanded that he later end up as a veteran guiding the likes of Laurent Koscielny as the Wenger got starved of experienced head last season.
Worst case scenario and he will at least be chased by a handful of clubs for his experience. Alas, mommy Servettestands as the only club in the whole world ready to cradle him into retirement.