Jack Wilshere has seemingly disagreed with Theo Walcott by suggesting it wouldn’t be a bad idea for England to take Max Dowman to the World Cup this summer.
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A couple of weeks ago, former Arsenal winger Theo Walcott suggested Max Dowman shouldn’t go to the World Cup with England, even if he receives a call-up.
“I hope he [Dowman] doesn’t go,” Walcott said. “I don’t mean it in a horrible way, [but] because if I could go back in time, I would change things. I would say to myself ‘no, no, don’t do it’, but then try telling that to a 17-year-old!
“In time he will go, yes, but I don’t think this is the time and I think there are better players who arguably deserve to be there ahead of him.”
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Walcott knows a thing or two about being a young player in the England squad, having been called up for the 2006 World Cup at 17. But another former Arsenal and England wonderkid in Jack Wilshere has a different opinion on the matter.
“The only thing I would say is, Spain would take him,” Wilshere told The Telegraph. “That’s what I think. We have this way at times in England of building them up but then protecting them. You get caught in that [place]: ‘If he goes what will people say?’
“He is definitely good enough. Even if he goes and he doesn’t play that much. Which I think he can. I think he is good enough.
“He is going to be there eventually. I understand people saying, ‘Maybe not’. But I also think [Lamine] Yamal went as a 16-year-old [to Euro 2024] and he was the best player in the tournament.”
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Ultimately, neither Walcott nor Wilshere are going to be making the final call on Dowman’s inclusion. That’s up to Thomas Tuchel and Dowman himself.
Tuchel didn’t rule out the possibility when asked last month, saying that though there was “no need” to call Dowman up in March, a World Cup squad inclusion was still an option.
But you’d think it would require the teenager having a significant role in Arsenal’s run-in over the next couple of months. That’s a possibility, but there are no guarantees he won’t find himself sidelined once Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, and Martin Odegaard are all fit.
