A lot of people say you always come back to what you are good at. Football has been 25 years of my life, so maybe I'll come back to it in some sort of way.

So I took it as a very positive sign that the club came to me rather than the other way round.

The regular things in my life now - training sessions and playing matches - will all fall away. That will leave a big empty space and it will need to be filled.

My aim is to play as many games as possible and to go out and be one of the 11 players again.

I just wanted to get back to playing attacking football after my time in Italy. It was a little difficult at first but the atmosphere and the fans were just fantastic.

People can say the money doesn't really matter but it does show you how much a club respects you.

Other clubs never came into my thoughts once I knew Arsenal wanted to sign me.