Mikel Arteta has compared Max Dowman to Lionel Messi after it was announced the 16-year-old English sensation will sign a professional contract with Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Dowman, who made his debut in Arsenal’s 5-0 win against Leeds in August aged 15 years and 234 days, has reached a pre-agreement at the north London club which will tick over into a pro deal when he turns 17 on 31 December.<\/p>\n
Dowman became Arsenal\u2019s youngest ever starter when he impressed in a Carabao Cup win against Brighton at the Emirates in October.<\/p>\n
A month later, he became the Champions League\u2019s first 15-year-old player following an appearance off the bench in Arsenal\u2019s win at Slavia Prague.<\/p>\n
In all, Dowman has played five times this season, but he has been sidelined for nearly two months with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n
When asked where Dowman sat among academy players he had seen come through the ranks, Arteta, who was on Barcelona\u2019s books at the same time as Messi, said: “Well, certainly one of the best.<\/p>\n
“What he has done with us, me personally, I haven\u2019t seen before. Only with a guy that used to play in Barcelona \u2013 but maybe not even that.<\/p>\n
“He has a certain charisma as well and personality. He doesn\u2019t get overwhelmed, whether it\u2019s by the situation or the stadium or the opposition and that\u2019s a huge quality to have.<\/p>\n
“The communication between us has been very, very productive over the years. It\u2019s now down to him and us to build an amazing career.”<\/p>\n
Dowman aside, Arteta will have a full squad to select from for his side\u2019s pivotal Premier League trip to Leeds on Saturday and the Spaniard revealed he believes matchday squads need to be bolstered.<\/p>\n
He said: “At the moment there are two or three players that I have to leave out. These are the rules of the Premier League.<\/p>\n
“I beg them, like it is in the Champions League, (to change it), because it\u2019s much better to manage the squad, to maintain the value of the players and to maintain the mental health of the players.<\/p>\n
“We have a really unique job, which is the ability to transform somebody\u2019s life, career. But every week we have to tell somebody, ‘Tomorrow you don\u2019t do your job and you\u2019re not even allowed to travel with the team\u2019.<\/p>\n
“Tell me a job that you have do that? I don\u2019t go to the kitchen and say to two of the chefs, \u2018Today you don\u2019t cook, just go home\u2019. The demands on games are bigger so we need bigger squads and it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense to restrict that.”<\/p>\n
Arsenal are four points clear of Manchester City and Arteta insists he can maintain his strong relationship with Pep Guardiola as the two clubs battle for the title.<\/p>\n
Arteta, who was Guardiola\u2019s assistant at City for three years, said: “I don\u2019t talk (with him) like my wife, but we talk.<\/p>\n
“For me, the surprising thing would be to not (maintain that relationship). And it would set a really bad example for sport.<\/p>\n
“The biggest lesson sport has given us was the relationship that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer had. We are not at that level. But they were two of the best in history, even though they had to play in finals.<\/p>\n
“So how the hell am I not going to have a great relationship with someone that I admire? But when it goes to the court, or to the pitch, that\u2019s for the winner.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta has compared Max Dowman to Lionel Messi after it was announced the 16-year-old English sensation will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-272402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}