After four years at Arsenal the time has come to say goodbye to our classical Czech. His playing record is less Mozart, more bubblegum pop: 93 appearances, a paltry 16 goals and a pathetic ten assists. Definitely more flat than sharp.

The player suffered an 18 month long mystery injury earning the obvious ‘Rosickly’ tag. However, since being restored to health last August, he’s never looked like a virtuoso. Now approaching his 30thbirthday his best performances are behind him.

In no way does he compare with any of his illustrious predecessors - Pires, Overmars, Merson, Limpar or even Marwood. At best he can match up to Freddie Ljungberg... but only in Freddie’s last season when everyone could see that he was well past his sell by date unless you were the (now bankrupt) Icelandic owners of West Ham.

So what are Tomas’ strengths? He looks busy and runs around a lot. What he hasn’t got is enough skill, guile, pace, vision or ability to create and score goals. He’s not a conductor like Cesc, not a soloist like Arshavin (when he can be bothered but his moodiness is typical of a prima donna) and not a leader like RVP.

As yet another season without silverware comes to an end we need to improve the squad in Wenger’s thrifty way. Rosicky is an expensive underperforming luxury. He’s a Czech we need to cash in, probably back to Germany where, like Hleb, he was popular and successful.

Having droned on endlessly about not blocking the development of young players, Arsene must now seize the opportunity to give Wilshere a chance to shine at Arsenal, not Bolton. There’s no doubt he can make sweeter music than our current number 7.