It’s finally time to talk about Max Dowman

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It’s finally time to talk about Max Dowman

Anyone remember the year Arsène Wenger insisted on playing Aaron Ramsey as a winger? What a time.

The ill fit turned the Welshman into a public enemy at the Emirates, in a shameful episode I still think about often. Yet Wenger persisted. Ramsey was 21 and returning from a horrific broken leg; out wide, his instructions could be as simple as ‘get the ball and go into the box.’ He learned how to make mistakes in a position as far away from his own goal as possible. He remembered what it’s like to be closed down quickly by someone larger, and to trust his body against them. The angle of required vision was smaller; the touchline is a much simpler input than a 360-degree revolving carousel of players.

Everyone hated it.

In 2013/14, Ramsey moved back into midfield and scored for fun, including to win Arsenal their first trophy in almost ten years. He had become, indisputably, one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe.

In May, 15-year-old Max Dowman spent three nights tearing across Albania at the U-17 EUROs and filling social media with clips of his prestigious talent. He played in the right half-space as the same kind of No.8-No.10 hybrid we see Martin Ødegaard perform every week. He lead the press alongside his No.9, just as Ødegaard does. But when Jake and I spoke to Ali Maxwell on The England Pod in May, I said I expected Dowman’s emergence at Arsenal to come on the right-wing, rather than as deputy for Ødegaard.

In July, he waltzed through Premier League defences and set fire to Singapore - from the right wing. I am a massive genius. That’s a joke. My point is only that I thought of those barren, infuriating Ramsey years when Mikel Arteta played Ethan Nwaneri as a winger last term, and I’ll think of the same as Dowman cuts his teeth during this. The Hale End pair are obviously both vastly, vastly more suited to wing-play than Ramsey ever was, but there was still a quiet frustration at Arteta’s unwillingness to trust Nwaneri with his natural, central role among fans, and I foresee similar angst surrounding Dowman.

As our friend Jon Mackenzie recently pointed out, Arteta has retuned his press to be faster and more aggressive in response to last year’s slump. Ødegaard’s role as conductor will be more demanding than ever, physically and spiritually - I strongly doubt Arteta wants to trust Dowman with it for more than a few minutes at a time.

So all that’s left to learn is just how far Arteta will be willing to push a player who won’t turn 16 until the final day of this year. Whatever the Spaniard’s planning, it’ll probably be disrupted - Myles Lewis-Skelly’s emergence was supercharged by Riccardo Calafiori’s injury last term. Stuff happens. It goes to plan or it doesn’t. Dowman’s appearances could change from opportunistic to habitual if Arsenal’s circumstances demand so. His ability to effect games is not in question - his ability to do it over and over again, bruised and aching, certainly still is.

Whatever happens, the event horizon has been crossed. We’ve quibbled with talking about Dowman for so long because he is still so unbelievably young - but he’s here now, and the spotlight won’t dim for hell nor high water.

Tom Curren

Why Richard Kone is a bargain buy

Richard Kone to Queens Park Rangers could prove to be one of the bargains of the summer.

To get a 22-year-old that scored 18 goals and won both Player and Young Player of the Year awards in League One last season for an initial £2.75 million is impressive in itself, particularly when Wycombe rebuffed offers of almost three-times that figure last January. But it gets even more impressive when you factor in the profile and potential of Kone.

I’m very bullish about his prospects. His skillset has been moulded by a unique journey which Ali Maxwell touched upon in NTT20’s latest EFL Transfer Bulletin. You can tell he spent his developing years in the depths of non-league football because he can do everything you'd want from your line-leading striker: pound channels, present a target, hold up play, link with others, drive with the ball, win headers, get all kinds of shots, and battle non-stop against the big boys. There's no heirs or graces to his game—he's a proper centre-forward that plays with an edge. In many ways, he is the antithesis of the academy-spec striker that does two skills to a standard and relies on cookie-cutter moves to score his goals.

Kone fits the bill as a Power Forward, one of our Archetypes, and Jake recently pitted him against a selection of exciting centre-forward prospects from a data point of view. He compares favourably to the likes of Viktor Gyökeres and Liam Delap. I think he has the top-end potential to follow in their Premier League footsteps.

Llew Davies

Stop being dumb about Brennan Johnson, he’s really good

Savinho would be a tremendous signing for Spurs; Ash explained why yesterday. But he is not a replacement for Brennan Johnson. He is an addition to Brennan Johnson.

This post prompted my defence of the Welshman. His shortcomings are so often paraded to hype potential incomings or explain defeats without any acknowledgment of his really, really excellent strengths. Johnson may not be a reliable one-vs-one threat, a ground-eating ball-carrier or a balletic dribbler, but he is an absolutely guaranteed box threat. And that is perhaps the rarest wide forward trait of them all - how often will wingers be criticised for not arriving at the back post to tap in a goal in 2025/26? Spoiler alert: a lot.

Hear me out: Savinho would be the signing of the summer

Even at City’s asking price, the artist formerly known as Sávio has a staggering ceiling - and could change Tottenham Hotspur’s trajectory

SCOUTEDAshwin Raman

Again, let me reiterate: adding Savinho’s qualities to the Spurs squad would be an excellent piece of business. But adding Johnson’s to the squad two years ago was also very smart. He scored 18 goals across all competitions in 2024/25; Savinho has 18 goals in his 141-game career to date. It’s really difficult to score that many. I will refrain from producing a cherry-picked list of players he did outscore, but look up your favourite wide player and see how they compare.

I know it was just a social media post, but it highlighted the importance of considering profile when comparing players. That is why I am developing Archetypes. Sávio falls in-between a Roadrunner - the ball-carrier - and a Safecracker - a chance-creation specialist. Johnson, meanwhile, is a full-on Raider - a reliable penalty-box presence. If you haven’t already guessed, one is not better than the other; they are in fact the perfect complimentary profiles. One gets the ball into the box, one gets themselves into the box. One assists shots, one takes shots.

To use some more numbers, Johnson averaged 0.19 NPxG per Shot in the Premier League last season - the same as Erling Haaland - while Sávio averaged 0.09. Meanwhile, the Brazilian ranked third among all Forwards for Passes + Carries into the Penalty Area with 6.2 per 90 - more than Michael Olise - while Johnson managed 2.9. They are both excellent at different things. That’s good.

Thomas Frank knows that. Just look at Bryan Mbeumo and Kevin Schade at Brentford. It’s not new. Cast your mind back to Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling at Manchester City or even as far back as Robert Pirés and Freddie Ljungberg for Arsenal. Players are skillsets - Archetypes. Compare those, not the position.

Jake Entwistle

That’s all, folks. See you next Friday.

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