Former Ajax manager Frank de Boer admits that the club were less than pleased to lose Donyell Malen to Arsenal a few years ago.

Malen made headlines on Tuesday after scoring his first goal for the PSV Eindhoven senior side. The 19-year-old came off the bench to score the winner against BATE Borisov in their Champions League qualifier. He scored just a minute after another former Gunner, Alexander Hleb, had scored an equaliser for Borisov.

Before PSV, Malen spent a couple of years with Arsenal, joining from Ajax. De Boer told the media this week the Dutch club weren’t happy to lose him.

“He has a lot of talent,” de Boer said. “I know him from his Ajax period. He actually was to be the successor to (Kasper) Dolberg. He then went to Arsenal and did not come back. He is really a good player, but is still a young talent.

“He is certainly a nice boy. He played at Ajax in youth. We were a bit p***ed [off] because he went to Arsenal. We saw him as a full-fledged Ajax player.”

Malen looks to be slowly breaking into the PSV first team now, after spending most of last season with the u21s. He’s only just managed a combined 90 minutes this campaign, over four appearances, but after his first goal he’s likely to get more chances.

It was a bit of surprise to see the young forward leave Arsenal in the first place. He made a dangerous attacking trio with Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah, and it seemed like they were all destined for first-team chances last season.

The latter two got their opportunities, and ended up playing more for the Arsenal first team than Malen did for PSV in 2017/18. Now it looks like the youngster’s decision to leave is finally paying off though, and he could be playing Champions League football with his new club before long.