Ryo ready to rock Wigan’s world

While excitement grows at the Emirates about emerging duo Serge GrrrrrrNabry (surely not the way his name is pronounced?) and Thomas Eisfeld, it’s easy to forget that we’ve another exciting young attacking talent plying his trade up at Wigan.

Having enjoyed his spell at Bolton last season, Ryo Miyaichi was snapped up by Roberto Martinez as the Latics looked to fill the void left by the departing Victor Moses. While the winger has not played as much as he or Arsene Wenger may have liked (just 5 appearances so far including 4 from the bench), the Japanese international insists that life at the DW Stadium is rosy.

“On a football level I have enjoyed every day at Wigan so far since I arrived,” he told Wigan’s official website.

“Personally I’ve found my own house and now I can deal with what is needed in my daily life and now I can focus fully on the football on the pitch.

“Roberto [Martinez] has good football tactics and sets high levels for players skills and techniques.

“If I can meet his demands and reach these levels then I can improve as a player more and more at Wigan.

“To keep on playing well for Wigan would surely let me earn a place in the Japanese national team. So when I am playing on the pitch, I think I have to always show my ability and get to the higher level.”

Returning to the North-West, Miyaichi also spoke warmly of his relationship with Wigan keeper Ali Al-Habsi, with whom he struck up a friendship last year, and how he sang one of Queen’s biggest hits as part of his Wigan dressing-room initiation.

“Since last year in Bolton, Ali and I were neighbours and he was very kind to me. We regularly go out for meals together and we invite each other to our homes and we also go shopping together.

“…[I sang] ‘We Will Rock You!’ I chose this song because I thought everybody knew this song and it was easy to sing. Everybody got more excited than I expected, and everybody was so cheerful and noisy and it was fun for me also.”

Arseblog News can’t help but wonder whether Miyaichi is at the back of Wenger’s mind as Theo Walcott continues to stall on a new deal at the Emirates.

Of course he’s still very raw and could do with beefing up a bit, but with pace to burn and decent technique he’s full of promise. Questions have to be asked as to why he’s not had much game time under Martinez, but we keep our fingers crossed that he’ll get more minutes as the season progresses.