Feyenoord general manager Eric Gudde, who has previously described Arsenal’s Ryo Miyaichi as the ‘Japanese Messi’, has praised the starlet’s time with the club.

The Asian superstar spent the second half of the season on loan to the Dutch giants and Gudde has hailed the impact of the 18-year old. In an interview with Goal.com, Gudde said:

“He is a player with good pace, dribbling and a lot of tricks to get behind the opponent. He has some excellent qualities and for his age is a very complete player. In the period when the opponent began measures like double marking, he had to work hard in March and April to find other solutions.”

“Overall, he was very important in the step forward that Feyenoord made in the last year. We went from 15th to ninth. It was a very disappointing season but all the people had a good feeling about Ryo as a player. They will remember him as an exciting player for the crowd,” Gudde continued.

“Within one match, our fans loved him,” .

“He came at the end of the January window at a difficult period for Feyenoord. We had lost our last three games, we were in 14th or 15th place and only two points off a relegation place.

“His first match was against Vitesse Arnhem, which we drew 1-1, and he played really well. His second match was a home match against Heracles, which we won 2-1. His opponent only saw his back. He played mainly on the left wing and kept beating the defenders and delivering really good crosses on his right and left foot.

“After the match we had a frenetic sight in the stadium. The crowd were unbelievably enthusiastic about him. So Ryo went to that side of the stadium where most of the home fans were and made a great bow to the fans.”

“February was his best month as nobody knew him and how he played,” said Gudde. “After that, the opponents began double marking him and he had more problems to be the best. He played left wing for us and the right defender and right midfielder were always in the neighbourhood of Ryo.

“He has a lot of qualities but he will take his time to play match after match in the Premier League. I was speaking to [Arsenal chief scout] Steve Rowley at one match and he said there is a big difference with the pace and power in the Premier League.”

“There were always Arsenal scouts at our matches. We sent Arsenal DVDs of Ryo and his playing programme, which entailed what he did in training. Steve Rowley asked Arsene Wenger to take Ryo back to London. From that moment we knew Arsenal would try to get the work permit.

“In the summer a lot of people hoped that he would not get a work permit so Arsenal would make another deal and he would play again for Feyenoord. We had to wait.”