Mikel Arteta has played down the idea that Arsenal risk losing Max Dowman to Real Madrid or another rival while negotiations continue over the teenager’s status. Dowman, 15, is not yet eligible to sign a senior contract but is in discussions with the club about his scholar status and a first professional contract that can be pre-signed when he turns 16.<\/p>\n
Arteta pointed to the player\u2019s affinity with the club and the family\u2019s attitude as reasons for optimism. \u201cI don\u2019t think about [losing Dowman] because everything that I hear from the player and the family has been very positive,\u201d he told reporters. \u201c[Staying long-term] is we all want and I think what he wants as well. After that it is more for [sporting director] Andrea [Berta] and the club.<\/p>\n
“But the feeling that I have is that genuinely he loves it here. He is a huge Arsenal supporter and his family are really happy with the way things are developing around him as well. Hopefully for many years he will be with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dowman made his first-team debut in August, becoming the club\u2019s second youngest ever player behind Ethan Nwaneri. Arteta has previously shown a willingness to hand very young players senior minutes, having introduced Nwaneri to the first team in 2022. Age alone has not been a barrier: \u201cIf we looked at his passport every day we would never play him, simple as that,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cSo it is finding a balance, an understanding, especially the load, the things that are changing in his life, and making sure he can cope with that. So far, he has done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season Dowman has made three first-team appearances, totaling 54 minutes, and further chances could arise as Arsenal manage absences in attack. Arteta conceded the squad is stretched ahead of the Carabao Cup tie with Brighton & Hove Albion. \u201cIn the front line, that is where we have more difficulties,\u201d he said. \u201cGabby Jesus out, Kai [Havertz] out, [Gabriel] Martinelli and [Noni] Madueke out. We have to be more careful as we don\u2019t have many options. ]”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta confident Max Dowman will remain at Arsenal as club advances talks on his first pro contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1067],"tags":[1066,1032,1077],"class_list":["post-4124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-carabao-cup","tag-carabao-cup","tag-contract-disputes","tag-contract-renewal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}