Jarrod Bowen is staying at West Ham. Not negotiating. Not waiting to see what Manchester United does. He signed a new contract and will play in the Championship next season. Fabrizio Romano confirmed the decision Tuesday.
Bowen, 29, had plenty of suitors. United, Chelsea, Liverpool all looked at him as a cut-price option after West Ham went down. A player with his production — nine goals and 11 assists for a relegated team, and that was a down year — doesn’t usually stay in the second division. But Bowen isn’t most players. He’s the captain. He bleeds claret and blue. And apparently he meant it.
For Manchester United, this is the second time this month they’ve swung at a West Ham player and missed. Mateus Fernandes chose Tottenham instead. But the club hasn’t given up on poaching from East London entirely. They’re still pushing for Crysencio Summerville, Bowen’s teammate on the left wing. Summerville is 24, Dutch, and currently the No. 1 target on United’s left-wing shopping list. AS Roma is pushing hard too. Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and PSG are all lurking.
A rare breed of loyalty
It’s almost unheard of in modern soccer. A player in his prime, good enough for a Champions League team, turning down a move to stay with a club heading to the Championship. Bowen’s numbers are even more impressive when you consider he was the only real threat in a team playing defensive football under a manager who got sacked. The year before relegation he had 13 goals and nine assists. The season before that was 16 goals and six assists. For a winger at a top-six club, those are excellent. For West Ham? Remarkable.
The new deal keeps him in London. Keeps him playing in front of fans who watched him drag the team through some brutal stretches. And it sends a message to the rest of the squad that the captain isn’t bailing when things got hard.
(Featured image: Alex Livesey via Getty Images)
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