Mikel Arteta Keen to Learn From Past Mistakes With Fresh Max Dowman Transfer Update

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted 16-year-old midfielder Max Dowman could soon leave the club on loan, but only if the right move can be found for the teenager.

Dowman recently became just the second 16-year-old to ever score two goals in a single game for a Premier League club in any competition—following on from Wayne Rooney—and earned comparisons to Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal for his rapid development at an early age.

While loan offers for Dowman have all been rebuffed thus far, Arteta admitted that situation could change as early as January.

“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,” Arteta reflected.

“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.”

Picking the right move for Dowman is essential, particularly after a similar situation quickly turned south for the Gunners not too long ago.

The Ethan Nwaneri Example

Dowman’s emergence has quickly claimed the spotlight away from 19-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, who held a similar reputation when he made his first-team debut at the end of the 2022–23 season as the youngest player in Premier League history.

Sent back to the academy the following season, Nwaneri was promoted to the senior side for the 2024–25 season and profited from injuries to other players as he made 37 appearances across all competitions for Arteta’s side.

That momentum was halted the following year as Nwaneri found himself down the pecking order, making just six appearances in the Premier League during the first half of the 2025–26 season. With his development in danger, Nwaneri was loaned to Marseille back in January at the request of then-manager Roberto De Zerbi, who left his post just a matter of weeks after Nwaneri joined.

His replacement, Habib Beye, publicly questioned Nwaneri’s “everyday commitment,” and the teenager ended his loan with just 412 minutes of action to his name, fewer than he had managed at Arsenal in the first half of the season.

That miserable loan may well have been weighing on Arteta’s mind as he debated Dowman’s next move.

“There have been many cases of that age that they’ve gone [on loan] and they’ve been successful, some others not,” Arteta 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 [Dowman]’s in a great place. He’s in a good place right now and let’s keep him here.”