Arteta Keeps Options Open for Max Dowman Loan While Central to Arsenal Plans
Mikel Arteta is in no rush to send Max Dowman away from Arsenal – but he is refusing to slam the door on a future loan for the 16-year-old phenomenon.
Dowman lit up the Carabao Cup in midweek, starting and scoring twice in the win at Ipswich to underline why so many inside the club see him as the next great Hale End export. Those 90 minutes at Portman Road, though, remain his only action of the season. He did not even make the bench for the recent Premier League victories over Aston Villa and Sunderland.
That contrast – explosive impact, limited minutes – is exactly what Arsenal are trying to manage.
“We haven't really listened to any of the [loan] possibilities because we were clear that we want to have him in the squad, that we wanted him to be part of the pre-season,” Arteta explained. “I'm going to start to see where we are from there. We will evaluate every six months where we are, what is the best thing for him to do and from there make the right decisions.”
The club’s stance is simple: Dowman stays put for now, trains with the first team, and has to fight his way into a side chasing major honours. Everything else is up for review.
Arteta spelt out the criteria. “It will depend on a lot of factors: what he needs, where the team is as well, the availability that we have in the squad, the amount of minutes that he's playing, the quality he's delivering when he's got those minutes.
“We have to be open, but now the focus is to be here and impact the team.”
The teenager’s rise has already been historic. Last season, in Arsenal’s title-winning campaign, Dowman became the Premier League’s youngest goalscorer and youngest starter. He also broke new ground in Europe as the youngest player in Champions League history, in a year where Arsenal went all the way to the final.
His performance at Ipswich only fuelled the hype. Mikel Merino went as far as to liken him to Barcelona and Spain prodigy Lamine Yamal, another teenager bending elite football to his will.
Arsenal have not been afraid to use the loan market for their brightest kids. Over the last nine months, Ethan Nwaneri – who set the record as the youngest ever Premier League player at 15 in 2022 – has been sent to Marseille and then Borussia Dortmund, where he is currently playing. For some, that pathway is essential. For Dowman, Arteta insists, the context has to be exactly right.
“There have been many cases of that age that they've gone [on loan] and they've been successful, some others not,” the Arsenal manager said. “Particularly, I think I was 17 when I went to Paris [Saint-Germain].
“Depending on the atmosphere that you find there, how much the coach believes in you, you go there just to be part of a squad, not to play minutes.
“Which country? Depends. But now he's in a great place. He's in a good place right now and let's keep him here.”
‘He’s better than Madueke right now’
Outside the club, the debate around Dowman is already stretching beyond Arsenal and into England contention.
Former striker Jay Bothroyd, speaking on Sky Sports News, did not hold back.
“Noni Madueke is not playing for Arsenal. For me, Max Dowman is better than Madueke now,” he said. “If you're going to consider Madueke for England, then you definitely have to consider Dowman. And Dowman should be in that England squad right now. There's no doubt about that for me.”
Bothroyd pushed the argument further, seeing Dowman as a central figure in the national team’s long-term plans.
“He's going to be the future of England. He's 16 but this is his second season as a pro. Come the European Championships in 2028, he's going to be 18. He has to be in that squad and if he keeps doing what he's doing, he's going to be in that squad.
“What's the negative? If you're good enough, you're old enough. Professional players think a certain way. They're not thinking: I'm 16, I'll wait a few years. They're thinking I want to play right now, especially if they're thinking they're better than who's in there.
“Dowman needs to be considered, he's the future. The same as how Rio Ngumoha is the future, who is electric.”
For now, the noise grows around him while Arsenal try to keep his world small: training ground, dressing room, pitch. The next six-month review is already looming in the background. The question is simple, and it will define his season: does Max Dowman explode at Arsenal now, or take the long road through a loan to come back even bigger?
