Mikel Arteta tips Arsenal talent too young for Premier League to debut in "near future"

Mikel Arteta has said Max Dowman will be involved with ’s first team in the “near future” after hailing the youngster for his “big, big talent.”

Midfielder Dowman has been training regularly with the senior squad this season and went to Dubai for their mid-season training camp. But he has not yet been involved in the because rules state that players must be 15 or older at the beginning of the season. He did not turn 15 until December 31.

However that has not stopped Dowman from stealing the limelight in the underage set up - last September he became the UEFA Youth League’s youngest goalscorer, aged 14 years, eight months and 19 days.

And after Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly paved the way from the academy to first team this season, Arteta has high hopes that Dowman can follow in their footsteps next season.

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“For the near future, yes,” he said. “Now he is involved in the squad. He trains with us a lot. Does that mean he will play in the Premier League many games? I don’t know; depends how good he is and how impressive he is and how much he offers the team like Ethan, like Myles, like any other player in the squad. Let’s see how this evolves but we certainly got a big, big talent there.

“I think he is in the right pathway and everybody in the academy has done an incredible job to consistently protect him, inspire him, challenge him, keep him always up and the levels that he could produce, and he is doing well. He is doing the right steps and taking it slowly. He will dictate how fast we go.”

Dowman has been compared to Martin Odegaard in style and asked if he will join the club on their pre-season tour of the United States Arteta added: "Yeah we will discuss at the end of the season and talk to Per (Mertesacker), the academy coaches as well, and him and his environment about how we are going to now create a development plan from next season like we do with any other player at the club and take the right steps hopefully.”

Arteta, speaking before their Premier League game against at the Emirates, was also quizzed on whether Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly could find their second seasons as full-time members of the matchday squad more difficult.

He replied: "The career of many footballers is not linear. Even if we get the best talent in Portugal for £50m, £60m, he comes here, maybe he has three wonderful months and then he is a drop for two or three months. That’s part of the game.”

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