Max Dowman's Future at Arsenal: Loan Possibility Looms

Mikel Arteta is refusing to rule out sending teenage sensation Max Dowman out on loan in January – even as the 16-year-old keeps making his case on the pitch.

The Arsenal manager watched Dowman light up the League Cup on Tuesday night, scoring twice in a 4-2 win over Ipswich Town, and then calmly reminded everyone that sentiment will not dictate the club’s next move.

Dowman, already the youngest scorer in Premier League history and in Arsenal’s history, is regarded as one of the brightest prospects in English football. An England Under-19 international who can play as an attacking midfielder or off either flank, he has three goals and one assist in 14 senior appearances across all competitions for the club.

This season, though, he has yet to feature in the Premier League for the reigning champions. The Emirates crowd wants to see more. Arteta wants to see what is best.

“We will evaluate every six months where we are and what is the best thing for him to do and then make the right decision,” Arteta told BBC Sport, laying out the framework for a potential January call. “It depends on a lot of factors.

“What he needs, and what the team needs as well, the availability we have in the squad, the minutes that he is playing and the qualities of those minutes.

“We have to be open, but now the focus is to be here and to impact the team.”

That last line matters. Arsenal were never in a rush to ship Dowman out. Arteta stressed that the plan for this season always involved keeping him close.

“We haven’t really listened to any of the possibilities because we were crystal clear that we wanted to have Max in the squad, that we wanted him to be part of the pre-season and then start to see where we are from there,” he said.

Arteta knows the crossroads of a young career. He lived it.

“There have been many cases of that age when they have gone out and been successful and others not,” he continued. “In my particular case, I was 17 when I went to Paris [St-Germain].

“It depends on the atmosphere that you find there, and how much the coach believes in you as to whether you go there just to be part of a squad or play minutes.

“Which country, it depends.

“But now he is in a good place, let’s keep him here.”

For now, then, Dowman remains the jewel of Arsenal’s production line, training daily with a title-winning squad and waiting for his next opening. His brace against Ipswich has only sharpened the conversation around his immediate future and his chances of a league outing.

Asked whether the teenager could feature against Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League on Saturday, Arteta made it clear that Dowman’s case will be argued with his boots, not his words.

“The best way to knock on the door is to do it on the pitch, not in the office,” Arteta said. “Then you just leave out the arguments.

“When a player delivers constantly on the pitch, every single day in training, that’s the best way, that’s the best signal for the manager.

“That’s the best signal for his teammates, too.

“And what Max did the other day, alongside all the other players as well that haven’t played many minutes this season, was really impressive.”

Impressive enough to force Premier League minutes? Or impressive enough to tempt Arsenal into testing him on loan in January? Dowman’s next few months will answer that far more loudly than any interview.