THE PLAN FOR DOWMAN: Arsenal's teenage star scored twice in the week as he underlined his quality and Mikel Arteta has to manage his rise, with a loan move possible as a former Gunner eyes swoop

Mikel Arteta admits that Arsenal will take a look at Max Dowman's situation every six months - with a loan away from the Emirates by no means out of the question.

The teenage prodigy is one of the most exciting talents to emerge from Hale End in some time, but overseeing his development into the player he could one day become is a task that Arteta will constantly be quizzed on.

This week Dowman made his first outing of the season, scoring twice in a Carabao Cup win at Ipswich having been uninvolved in Arsenal's four games prior to that.

In the days leading up to the victory at Portman Road Arteta had issued a strong stance regarding the teenager, who became the Premier League's youngest ever scorer last season, demanding that he earn any minutes and that they won't just be given.

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"Max will have his chance. He will have his minutes and he will have to earn them like anybody else," he said. "You know the talent that we have, the players that we have there, we need to help him and find a way to make sure he continues to develop."

That came after Dowman wasn't even good enough for the bench in the win over Sunderland last weekend - and in light of his Ipswich exploits Arteta concedes time away from the Emirates is not being ruled out, even if the preference is for him to keep improving in north London.

He said: "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. 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 will be able to make a loan move when he turns 17 on December 31. His New Year's Eve birthday comes the day before the January transfer window opens.

It is then that the teenager could leave Arsenal temporarily. Plenty of variables are likely to dictate whether Dowman is allowed to play his football elsewhere. How many minutes will he have come the New Year? Have Arsenal had a major injury to a forward player? Are they still in all four competitions?

But if he does leave, then where does he go?

You could argue that, as an Arsenal academy graduate,who was raved about, but headed out on loan for the good of his career, Jack Wilshere would be the perfect person for Dowman to go and play under. If nothing else, picking his brains would be a huge plus at this stage of his development.

Before injuries hit Wilshere was upwardly mobile at Arsenal, but in 2010 he went to Bolton for a period. The following season he was putting in a man of the match performance on a Champions League night where he stood on par with Barcelona's trio of Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.

Now manager at Luton, Wilshere would be keen to have Dowman at Kenilworth Road if the chance presented itself, reports the BBC. The Hatters were in the Premier League in 2024, but successive relegations now have them in the third tier.

Arsenal though haven't given any thought to where he might end up. "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," claimed Arteta.

Fostering young talent and allowing it to thrive in an environment where there are already so many world class options is a challenge. If Dowman is to get minutes for Arsenal then a player, likely one who has cost north of £50million, would have to be left out as a result.

Whether that be Martin Odeaard, Noni Madueke, Eberechi Eze or Christos Tzolis. Back in 2022 Ethan Nwaneri became Arsenal's youngest ever and, when given an opportunity, the teenager constantly looked the real deal.

However those opportunities began drying up and he's now in the midst of his second successive loan spell away having joined Borussia Dortmund in the summer.

Conversely another academy graduate in Myles Lewis-Skelly, after a summer that saw him linked with the exit door, has become a fixture in the starting XI. It shows it can be done, but Dowman, like Nwaneri, is operating in an area of the pitch where there is perhaps more competition for places.