The text I got from Jaap Stam sums him up – I've never worked with someone like that

Manchester United legend Jaap Stam has received high praise from former Reading charge Chris Gunter amid talk of a potential Old Trafford return.

Stam, 51, won three Premier League titles in as many seasons at the Theatre of Dreams, not to mention playing a key role in the iconic 1999 treble-winning campaign. Many United supporters were pained to see the player sold to Lazio in 2001, but reports have linked him with a return to the club's coaching staff more than two decades on.

Former Wales full-back Gunter, 34, spent eight years at Reading, with a quarter of that time spent under Stam's care. And although the Dutch great's time in Berkshire ended on a low note, Gunter didn't hesitate in hailing him as "the best club manager" he's played under.

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"He was incredible. I was away in the Euros with Wales when he got the job at Reading and I was being told dates when I was meant to be back in," Gunter told Get Reading. "But when we kept going further and further in the competition it [my return] was getting pushed back. So all the boys were back in pre-season and we were still in France.

"There were a couple of times he would text and say good luck and a small thing like that - having a text from a manager saying good luck or well done shows they are keeping an eye on you. He was someone I had never met and looking back over time, I'm not really shocked because the way he was with the players, it probably came naturally to him.

"The way he was as a person and what he'd done in his career - he could have come to Reading, seen us as players and been on a different level because he has played at the top of the game. But the way he merged himself in to the standard of the players and the league was really impressive."

Stam recently denied the speculation linking him with a return to Old Trafford, but did leave the door open. He recently told the Daily Mail he's had no contact with the club, before adding: "If they want me to help them in any way as well, then I'm always ready to do so."

That certainly sounds like a man ready to consider a comeback, should the opportunity come calling. The former defender has agreed to coach his boyhood club, DOS Kampen, from this summer. But the chance to work at the Theatre of Dreams could well pull him away from his commitment with the sixth-tier side.

From Gunter's assessment of the coach, United would be getting their hands on one who knows how to connect with the squad, at the very least. However, the Welshman also praised other aspects of Stam's coaching influence and commented that some of the football Reading played under his tutelage was "unbelievable."

"At time we'd blow teams away. There were a lot of times – if it didn't work it was because of our passing, and if we'd lose it was the wrong way to go," Gunter explained. "But he would always say we're not changing – we just need to do it better.

"There were times when we did overplay and it resulted in us losing a goal but the times when we did score from it... the highlights only show the final pass and finish, but the move actually started with our centre-backs which would never get picked up on. But we knew inside the club that it was because of what we were doing."