The player once tipped as Hale End’s best ever talent gives his verdict on Max Dowman

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Max Dowman’s breakthrough season at Arsenal has caught the attention of a familiar face from Hale End.

The 16-year-old made Premier League history earlier this season by becoming the competition’s youngest ever scorer, and has since won a Premier League Homegrown Debutant of the Season award.

Bukayo Saka has already backed him to fulfil his enormous potential at the Emirates, and now another Hale End graduate has added his voice to the growing chorus of praise.

Charlie Patino, once described by a senior Arsenal academy scout as “the best player to ever walk through the doors at Hale End”, has been watching Dowman’s rise, and he likes what he sees.

“What Max has done so far is great,” Patino told SPORTbible. “He’s still very young, like I was when I broke through.

“And like me, he has still got a lot of learning and growing to do. Hopefully we’ll cross paths one day and get to play with or against each other.”

Charlie Patino’s message to Max Dowman

Patino wants Max Dowman to go out and enjoy every moment. “If I had to give Max some advice, I’d say play with freedom and take every opportunity when it comes,” he said.

“Control the controllables and enjoy everything you do. Every journey is different. There will be ups and downs.”

It is the kind of counsel that only someone who has lived that journey can really give.

Arteta hasn’t been shy in handing out opportunities to academy graduates this season — six have made their debuts — and Dowman has seized his with both hands at an age when he is still doing his GCSEs.

The timing, as it turns out, has been everything.

Charlie Patino says he didn’t get a chance at Arsenal

Charlie Patino knows better than most what it means to carry the weight of Hale End expectation.

He scored with his first shot in professional football in a Carabao Cup win over Sunderland in 2021 before loan spells at Blackpool and Swansea, eventually departing for Deportivo La Coruna in 2024 for around £1 million.

Now 22 and pushing for promotion to La Liga with Deportivo, he reflects on his Arsenal career openly and honestly.

“In my opinion, I didn’t really get a chance to go and show what I was all about,” he admits.

“Of course it was difficult at the time. Competition was strong and it was a period of transition under Mikel. But as I keep on saying, it’s about timing.”

Timing. Patino had the talent. Dowman, it seems, has the timing too.

Hopefully, as Patino says, their paths cross one day, and on considerably more equal terms.