Liverpool signing Babel is the new Henry

The Dutch league might have lost some of the sheen that was still dazzling foreign visitors as recently as the 1995-96 season, when Howard Wilkinson's Leeds United were turfed out of the UEFA Cup by an 8-3 aggregate score that by no means flattered an unstoppable PSV Eindhoven.

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Flying Ryan: New boy Babel is confident he can excel in the Premier League

Babel is clearly in a league of his own, though, judging by the accolade he brings with him from Ajax to Anfield and the person who gave it to him.

For all Holland's renown for producing world-beaters up front, current national coach Van Basten stands comparison with the best and will always be remembered for the stunning volley from a seemingly impossible angle that left Russia's keeper Rinat Dassayev grasping at air in the 1988 European Championship final in Munich.

The vision that made him one of the eminent members of a multi-talented AC Milan side now extends to spotting talent for his home country and he had no doubts about Babel's pedigree.

"He has all the potential to become the next Thierry Henry," he said. "The pace, movement, finishing, feel for the game — it's all there. If he keeps developing and improving there is no saying what he might achieve in the game."

Babel could scarcely have wished for more lavish praise and it was no hasty appraisal, either.

Delivered in the build-up to last summer's World Cup finals after naming the Ajax flyer in his Holland squad, Van Basten based his view on no fewer than four years' worth of tuition and careful evaluation.

After suffering the heartbreak of rejection as a starry-eyed 10-year-old, Babel was taken on by his home club 12 months later and soon began to stand out, even in Ajax's academy.

By 15, with his first professional contract still three years away, he was terrorising defences to such a degree that first-team coach Ronald Koeman was summoned.

As he stood by the side of the pitch and marvelled at the local kid with the Henry looks and pace to match, Koeman quickly concluded that he had found the perfect pupil for his friend Van Basten's fledgling skills as a coach.

His coaching badges newly attained and with one eye already trained on moving into management, Van Basten needed little persuading to aid Babel's rapid development.

He began a series of one-to-one training sessions that accelerated his teenage prodigy's advance towards a first-team spot at the Amsterdam ArenA.

It duly arrived two months after Babel's 17th birthday, when he helped Ajax to a 4-0 win over Den Haag with a performance that set the tone for spectacular debuts.

Barely 13 months later, he earned his first Holland cap, as substitute for Arjen Robben, and became his country's youngest goalscorer for 68 years by rounding off a 2-0 win in Romania.

Five months short of his 21st birthday, he has already made 14 senior appearances, but his match-winning exploits at this summer's European Under 21s really announced him to English audiences.

Some onlookers from these shores were already familiar with what he had to offer, judging by mounting transfer speculation which at one stage portrayed him as a near certainty to replace Henry at Arsenal.

The conjecture evidently reached Babel's ears and his response may prove a source of embarrassment when he is soon paraded as Liverpool's latest big-money signing.

"If I got the chance, one day, to train with Arsene Wenger, it would be a dream come true," he gushed. "From when I was young, I always supported Arsenal. I like their style, everything about them."

It may raise a few eyebrows in and around Anfield, but Liverpool followers will forgive anything for the chance to end an 18-year wait for a League title.

All it needs is for Babel to start proving the Henry comparisons were well founded and the verbal indiscretion and mindboggling £2.5m pay-off from Ajax — his cut of the transfer fee — will count for nothing.

He is clearly in the mood, saying: "I think the Premiership is maybe the best league in the world. The standard is so high, but I believe I am ready to test myself in it."