Mikel Arteta might consider handing Max Dowman his senior Arsenal debut during the 2025/26 season.
The Arsenal manager showed he wasn’t afraid to use the 15-year-old during pre-season, with the teenager making it clear that he’s up to the task.
Dowman was as good as any first-team regular during pre-season, showing his capabilities against Premier League opposition.
The youngster’s trickery and confidence saw him win two penalties on different occasions, with his talent something that Arsenal are going to struggle to contain.
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Mikel Arteta can’t believe how ready Max Dowman is for senior football
Of course, it’s a huge positive to have a talent of this calibre breaking through, but Arsenal want to steer attention away from Dowman to protect his development.
That alone won’t stop the hype around Dowman, particularly as he continues to leave his manager astonished.
In an interview with The Athletic, Arteta admitted the 15-year-old is already doing things he once considered to be ‘impossible’.
“It’s the evolution of the game. I think if you asked me at 15 if I could play with the first team? Impossible. It was honestly impossible. I could not do it, not mentally, not physically.
“All the tools, all the training, all the education and all the development that they are now having at a very young age are paying off.”
Arteta went as far as to admit that he believes Dowman’s ability to play at senior level already is ‘very strange’.
“A lot of work has been done in this country, and that’s why those players at 15, 16 years old look ready to play men’s football, and that’s very, very strange.”
At a time when 18-year-old Lamine Yamal is a serious Ballon d’Or contender, the frequency of seeing young talent emerge so early is set to rise, with Dowman taking all the right steps to the top.
Dowman’s record playing above his age group
Dowman has been compared to Lionel Messi already, which is flattering and staggeringly understandable, but not something Arsenal want to entertain.
Above talent and exposure comes protection, with his ability making it easy to forget that he’s still a 2009-born school kid.
That being said, it’s difficult to rein in a talent as loud as Dowman’s, who is already playing way beyond his years in Arsenal’s academy.
In his career, the 15-year-old has played 25 times for Arsenal’s U18 squad, contributing to 30 goals, which says everything, really.
The next jump would ordinarily be the U21s, but having seen the playmaker in action in pre-season, it’s unclear whether Arteta can resist the temptation to integrate the youngster into this first team.
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