Image for Arsenal’s Hale End academy in 2026-27: Saka, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, the Nwaneri loan and how the output compares with Cobham and Manchester City
Image for Arsenal’s Hale End academy in 2026-27: Saka, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, the Nwaneri loan and how the output compares with Cobham and Manchester City
Max Dowman scored twice at Portman Road on 15 September 2026, a 4-2 Carabao Cup third-round win over Ipswich, in his first appearance of the season. He was 16. Cup nights like that are when a Hale End name becomes a bet as well as a hope, and the sensible way to back a teenager’s next goal is with a stake that is not yours. The best football betting sites exist for that kind of punt.
The champions begin the defence of their first title in 22 years with five academy products in or around Mikel Arteta’s squad, one on loan in Germany, one in Scotland and one long-term injury, as of 14 October 2026.
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Saka, Lewis-Skelly and Dowman: the graduates with 2026-27 minutes
Bukayo Saka remains the standard against which every other graduate is measured. He signed a new contract in February 2026, having reached 296 appearances and 77 goals for the club, and he scored in the 3-0 opening-day win over Coventry on 21 August. He has carried an Achilles tendinopathy issue since the spring, so Arteta has not asked him to play every minute this autumn.
Myles Lewis-Skelly has become a midfielder rather than a left-back. He started each of Arsenal’s first four Premier League matches alongside Declan Rice in the deeper roles, a run no English teenager had managed at the club since Tony Adams and David Rocastle in 1986-87. He has four years left on his contract and has said he wants to stay, despite reported interest from Manchester United and Chelsea.
Dowman agreed a pre-contract in January 2026, since he cannot sign full professional terms until his 17th birthday on 31 December. He became the Premier League’s youngest ever scorer against Everton on 14 March 2026 and the youngest player to receive a winners’ medal, as the Premier League’s end-of-season summary records, after Manchester City’s draw at Bournemouth in Matchweek 37. This season he has the Ipswich brace and one league appearance from the bench.
Nwaneri at Borussia Dortmund, Kabia at St Mirren and the Copley injury
Ethan Nwaneri is the big absence. He was an unused substitute against Coventry, left out at Aston Villa on 31 August, and on 1 September Arsenal confirmed a season-long loan to Borussia Dortmund, with Dortmund reported to be covering his full salary. It is his second loan in nine months. He joined Marseille in January 2026, scored on debut against Lens, then made only 11 appearances and missed six of their last seven matches, with Habib Beye questioning his commitment in public. The player who covered for Saka across 37 matches in 2024-25 now has to rebuild his case in the Bundesliga.
Ismeal Kabia, 20, is the other confirmed loanee. St Mirren announced a season-long deal on 16 August after his 43-appearance year at Shrewsbury, where his strike against Fleetwood won League Two’s Goal of the Month for April 2026. His only competitive Arsenal appearance remains the 5-1 Carabao Cup win over Bolton in 2024, before the club sent him to Shrewsbury Town on loan. Louie Copley, 19, was due another loan after nine games at Crawley, but he tore an anterior cruciate ligament against Real Betis in pre-season.
Salmon and Harriman-Annous: the next two in the queue
Marli Salmon captained the under-21s last season at 16, made his senior debut off the bench against Club Brugge in December 2025, then played three FA Cup ties against Portsmouth, Wigan and Mansfield. He signed a pre-contract in April and turned professional on his 17th birthday in August. The Ipswich cup tie was his second senior start.
Andre Harriman-Annous, 18, signed his first professional deal in August 2025 and led the line in the 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Brighton two months later, the night Dowman became Arsenal’s youngest ever starter at 15 years and 302 days. Arteta has kept him in London this season. He has five Premier League 2 starts and two goals, plus goals in the EFL Trophy against Leyton Orient and the Youth League against Napoli.
Hale End against Cobham and Manchester City over five seasons
Chelsea have topped Training Ground Guru’s academy productivity rankings for three editions running, with Arsenal second in the 2024-25 table. The gap is in volume: 18 Cobham graduates played in the Premier League or another big-five league that season, six of them for Chelsea’s own first team. In the 2025-26 Premier League, Chelsea’s graduates logged the most minutes of any academy, 5,673 by early April 2026, while Manchester City had used the most individual academy players, seven.
Arsenal come closest when the measure is graduates’ minutes across the whole league rather than at one club. A PA study of 2022-23 put Cobham graduates on 21,031 minutes and 44 seconds, Hale End graduates 37 seconds behind, and City’s academy 1,500 minutes back on 19,458.
Sales income: £251m for Chelsea, £260m for City, three deals for Arsenal
Chelsea banked £251.2m from academy sales over three seasons, led by Mason Mount to Manchester United for £55m and Ian Maatsen to Aston Villa for £37.5m. Manchester City have taken more than £260m from youth sales since 2017, with Cole Palmer’s move to Chelsea worth up to £42.5m and Romeo Lavia’s to Southampton £24m.
Arsenal have sold fewer graduates and kept the best. The three academy exits in the club’s all-time top ten, Folarin Balogun to Monaco in 2023, then Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham and Eddie Nketiah to Crystal Palace in 2024, each brought in roughly €30m. Eight academy contracts expired on 30 June 2026, Josh Nichols among them. The next checkpoint is 31 December, when Dowman turns 17 and can sign the professional contract agreed eleven months earlier.