Arsenal must sell £30m star who’s “like Cesc”

Arsenal’s clash with Mansfield Town on Saturday didn’t have too many positives for Mikel Arteta.

While the Gunners did make it through to the next round of the FA Cup, many fringe players struggled to stake their claim for a place in future starting lineups.

That said, one of the positives was Hale End. While Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly may have struggled for regular minutes this term, the boss hasn’t neglected the young stars of tomorrow.

At Mansfield, 16-year-old sensations in the form of Max Dowman and Marli Salmon both started while 18-year-old full-back Jaden Dixon appeared late on off the bench.

How Hale End starred against Mansfield

Are there many more exciting players than Dowman in European football right now? Aged just 16, the teenager appears to have the world at his feet and looks like a star already.

A fleet-footed attacking midfielder who oozes class on the ball, the youngster has the ability to skip and evade challenges like a young Lionel Messi.

Feel free to tell us to hold our horses here, but Dowman, left-footed and boasting an awesome sense of low gravity, there are comparisons to be had.

The Hale Ender didn’t score or assist on Saturday but he looked like the best player on the field.

That said, it was a rather more difficult afternoon for young Salmon. Widely tipped for stardom, the defender has made a few substitute appearances but this was his first start in Arsenal colours.

For the most part, the youngster stood out but it was his back pass that sold Cristhian Mosquera short in the build-up to the hosts’ equaliser. Given his age and the fact he was actually playing out of position at right-back, you can excuse a lapse in judgment.

Eventually replaced by 18-year-old Dixon, the winter signing from Stoke City certainly looked like a mighty fine player. Slightly more stocky than Salmon, his physical stature stood out immediately while he looked supremely confident in possession, linking up with Noni Madueke nicely down the right-hand flank in the dying embers of the match.

That said, despite Madueke and Eberechi Eze scoring, all of the focus was on Dowman, deservedly so too.

What Dowman’s emergence means for the Arsenal squad

When Arsenal signed Eze last summer, eyebrows were raised for several reasons, not least because they’d stolen him away from the clutches of Tottenham Hotspur, but because competition for places in Eze’s favoured area of the pitch was already hotly contested.

Ethan Nwaneri had just enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2024/25 while Kai Havertz and chiefly Martin Odegaard were the main options in that role.

That’s not forgetting Dowman either, who, despite playing a lot of his football for Arsenal on the right, played through the middle on Saturday lunchtime.

The teenager’s preferred position is more centrally and you could certainly tell with the way in which he played at Mansfield. Taken off after 77 minutes, he did so having completed four of his seven dribbles. He also made two key passes, had a whopping five shots and was fouled three times. This was a masterclass from someone who is still a child.

​The performance was telling. It may have only been against League One opposition but it was a display full of authority and one we’ve rarely seen from many players in that role for Arsenal this season.

Take the aforementioned Odegaard for instance. The skipper was once adjudged to be “like a young Cesc Fabregas” by the great Arsene Wenger, but his career has stuttered and stalled over the last two seasons.

That 15-goal year in 2022/23 is now a thing of the past with the Norwegian really struggling to make much of an impact.

The £30m signing missed plenty of football last term due to an ankle injury but even when he did play, good performances were few and far between. Indeed, the attacking midfielder ended 2024/25 with six goals and 12 assists. Just three of those strikes came in 30 league outings.

Things have not got much better for Odegaard this term. It’s been another campaign of injury niggles for the 27-year-old, who has only played 27 matches and scored one goal across all competitions.

Patience is wearing thin from some within the fanbase and while Arteta will undoubtedly be reluctant to sell, perhaps this summer represents the ideal opportunity to cash in on a player in his prime.

Odegaard has had some incredible days in Arsenal colours but he already looks like he’s past his best and the emergence of an in-form Eze and the rise of Dowman give them the perfect excuse to get rid.

Lest we forget about Nwaneri either. Currently on loan at Marseille, it doesn’t feel like either he or Dowman will get regular minutes until the club captain has left.

It sounds like an extreme measure to take but when you have a generational academy graduate in your ranks, something or someone, in this instance, has to give.