With the departure of Joleon Lescott for Manchester City in August 2009, David Moyes drew up a shortlist of potential replacements which reportedly included Portsmouth's Sylvain Distin, Newcastle's Steven Taylor and Arsenal's Philippe Senderos. Indeed, the Swiss defender came very close to signing for Everton but, in the end, it was Distin whom the club acquired for £5m.
Having spent one loan spell with AC Milan the previous season, it was clear that Senderos was surplus to requirements at the Emirates Stadium and he would spend the majority of the first half of the 2009-10 season on the Gunners' bench.
When Lucas Neill made a surprise move to Galatasaray in the January 2010 transfer window, however, Moyes was back in the market for a centre half and duly approached Arsene Wenger with an offer to take the 24 year-old on loan for the remainder of the season.
The Switzerland international, who had 33 caps to his name at the time he arrived at Goodison, eventually arrived in 23rd January and went straight into the squad against Sunderland as an unused substitute before making his full debut at Wigan the following Saturday.
For Senderos, it was a chance to revive his stalled league career and remain in contention for places for his country's World Cup campaign and he certainly has a lot to prove, having failed to make the grade at Arsenal. But to do that, he would need games... and that's not exactly what he got in abundance during his short spell at Everton.
At the end of the season, as his loan ended, news came he was joining Fulham, and he went on to play for Switzerland in the 2010 World Cup, including a nice win over Spain
Lyndon Lloyd Last updated January 2010