Declan Rice names ‘unreal’ Arsenal youngster who could follow in footsteps of Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri | Football

Declan Rice has described Max Dowman as ‘the best 15-year-old in the country’ and urged the ‘unreal’ youngster to continue working hard to give himself the best possible chance of succeeding at Arsenal.

Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri have enjoyed remarkable breakthroughs in recent months, emerging from Arsenal’s Hale End academy to establish themselves as genuine first-team stars in north London.

The former was rewarded with a place in Thomas Tuchel’s first squad as England manager this month and went on to score on debut in the Three Lions’ World Cup qualifying victory over Albania last Friday.

Dowman is yet to make a senior appearance for the Gunners but has been widely tipped to follow in the footsteps of Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri at the Emirates.

The England Under-17 attacking midfielder became the youngest ever Premier League 2 player in December and has trained with Mikel Arteta’s first-team squad with increasing frequency in the intervening months.

‘I have had so many texts about Max recently,’ Arsenal and England midfielder Rice told BBC Radio 5 Live.

‘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.’

Having broken through at West Ham as a precocious teen, Rice has taken it upon himself to keep a close eye on Arsenal’s three young stars.

‘I have a great relationship with all three of them, because Max gets to train with us quite a lot,’ he added.

‘I have kind of taken these three under my wing, because I have been in that position before and I had older players help me out.

‘I get on well with all of them and they are really comfortable around me, which is all part of having a good relationship.’

Arteta last month said that Premier League rules were making it ‘difficult’ for Dowman to make his first-team debut for Arsenal this season.

But Dowman was taken to Arsenal’s recent warm-weather training camp in Dubai and Arteta had nothing but praise for the teenager ahead of the trip.

‘Very impressive at his age,’ the Spaniard said when asked for his assessment of Dowman.

‘Some of the things he does in training are unbelievable.

‘He’s a player with a huge talent that we have a lot belief that we can develop him into becoming one of our own and he’s doing very well so far.

‘At the moment with all the legislation there are a lot of restrictions, something that in other countries you don’t even mention.

‘We will have to wait and see. He’s taking very fast steps because every time you give him a different challenge or put him at a different level he overcomes that quickly which is great. We are on it.’

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