Mate is involved in a few blogs and post casts covering the J league (poor man's Sid Lowe) and he said he is doing ok and playing reasonably well. They use him mostly as a sub to come on and run around a lot as other players tire (sound familiar), he is reasonably popular with the fans due to his effort (again familiar) and has scored a couple. He said it looks to be a done deal.
He also raves about Maya who he rates very highly, completely different class from Lee in his opinion.