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Getty Images.
Morning all.
Max Dowman, a 15 year Arsenal player already playing for England’s under 17’s and shining. His goal the other night against the Czech Republic was sublime but even though England won, they were knocked out of the Under 17s Euros. Not nice for the players but good for Arsenal as Mikel Arsenal has already confirmed, Dowman, along with a number of other academy players, will be part of the club’s pre-season tour.
Declan Rice had this to say to the BBC about our young midfielder who I read ‘plays like Kaka’…..
**_I have had so many texts about Max recently. At 15, there is such a long way to go. You can be the best 15-year-old in the country, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be at 18. So, you need to be hungry, keep working and keep pushing. I speak to Max a lot and he has got such a good family around him. He is unreal._**
It’s true, a player can look like Pele at 15 years old, and we have had more than our fair share of fantastic young players, but when it comes to going up a level in age groups, they have struggled to keep up. I have lost count of the players who have left Arsenal and simply drifted down through the leagues. Don’t get me wrong, playing professional football at any level should be deemed a success but as Rice says, to succeed at the highest level, these young players have to stay hungry. They need to stay grounded too.
Every now and again though, an academy player has something extra special about them. Jack Wilshere had it, Bukayo Saka had it, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri and Emile Smith Rowe too. Going further back in time there are others who have come through the academy and had fantastic careers but I’ve stuck to the present rather than including the past.
Max Dowman might very well turn out to be the next best thing coming through at Arsenal but just as footballers need to keep their feet on the ground, we fans need to as well. It’s not until 18-20 years old that a males body is fully developed, sorry guys, some things really don’t continue to grow, so bearing in mind Dowman is just 15, he’s not going to play much football for the first team next season and nor should he in my opinion. The last thing he needs is someone like Dan Burn or Virgil van Dijk clattering into him. We’ve seen what defenders do to Saka on a weekly basis, Martinelli too. Opponents won’t care about his age, they will only care about stopping him from doing things like he did for England two nights ago because they will not want to be embarrassed by a 15 year old.
Thankfully, this might be when Mikel Arteta’s reluctance to play youngsters could be a positive.
Catch up in the comments.