Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Max Dowman is the youngest player to ever start a game for Arsenal
BySteve SutcliffeBBC Sport journalist- Published18 September 2026, 22:30 BST
Arsenal are open to allowing teenage prodigy Max Dowman to leave the club on loan this term if it aids his development.
Last season, the 16-year-old set two records, as the youngest player to score in Premier League history and for the Gunners.
However, while he is yet to feature in the English top flight this term, he marked his first appearance of the season with two goals in Arsenal's 4-2 win at Ipswich in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
And while his manager Mikel Arteta stressed that he is keen to keep the youngster involved in his senior squad, he said the club will evaluate what is best for Dowman at regular intervals.
"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 said.
"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."
Dowman, who completed his GCSEs in the summer, will be eligible to make a loan move when he turns 17 on 31 December.
The winter transfer window is scheduled to open the following day, with League One side Luton's manager Jack Wilshere, the former Arsenal midfielder, believed to have expressed an interest in taking the youngster on loan.
"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," Arteta added.
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Dowman featured 13 times for Arsenal last term as they ended their 22-year wait to win the Premier League.
And with Arteta keen to protect the teenager, he was guarded around whether it may be too early to send Dowman out on loan.
"There have been many cases of that age when they have gone out and been successful and others not," Arteta added.
"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."
Starting by defeating Manchester City in the Community Shield, the Gunners have won all seven of their domestic and European fixtures this term.
And Dowman will hope that his performance against the Tractor Boys puts him into Arteta's thinking for Saturday's Premier League trip to Brighton.
"The best way to knock on the door is to do it on the pitch, not in the office," added Arteta when asked about Dowman's prospects of featuring against the Seagulls.
"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 team-mates, 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."
