{"id":669604,"date":"2026-01-02T19:28:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669604\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T19:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:28:28","slug":"jarrod-bowens-make-or-break-five-months-for-west-ham-and-england-where-his-future-lies-and-why-the-hammers-need-their-captain-to-step-up-in-a-team-sorely-lacking-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669604\/","title":{"rendered":"Jarrod Bowen’s make-or-break five months for West Ham and England, where his future lies and why the Hammers need their captain to step up in a team sorely lacking leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the biggest five months of Jarrod Bowen<\/a>\u2019s career. Five months to keep West Ham<\/a> in the Premier League<\/a>, five months to ensure his place in Thomas Tuchel<\/a>\u2019s squad for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Take care of one and, perhaps, the other takes care of itself.<\/p>\n

Keeping this West Ham side up will be an achievement worthy of reward. They are a mess. No wins in eight, starting the second half of the season inside the bottom three, a fan base revolting against the club\u2019s ownership with marches, sit-ins, boycotts and black balloons as their club faces the real threat of relegation for the first time in 15 years.<\/p>\n

They missed the chance to move to two points from safety after twice spurning leads against Brighton<\/a> while the visit of bottom side Wolves<\/a>, fresh from a point at Old Trafford, is a banana skin West Ham fans recognise only too well.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the mess, Bowen keeps toiling away. Top scorer, talisman, and captain on what too often feels like a one-man crusade and, with a defence as atrocious as theirs, one that even he cannot keep doing alone.<\/p>\n

Bowen has called on his side to be \u2018nasty\u2019 to play against. Streetwise. There\u2019s no evidence yet that the squad have it in them.<\/p>\n

\"Welcome <\/p>\n

Welcome to the biggest five months of Jarrod Bowen\u2019s career. Five months to keep West Ham up and get in the World Cup squad – take care of one and the other may take care of itself<\/p>\n

\"Bowen <\/p>\n

Bowen is West Ham’s top scorer, talisman, and captain on what too often feels like a one-man crusade and, with a defence as atrocious as theirs, one that even he cannot keep doing alone<\/p>\n

For even while Bowen leads by example there still lingers the question of whether he\u00a0exudes the personality a side like West Ham need from their captain in a relegation scrap.<\/p>\n

Former manager Graham Potter felt Bowen often struggled to lead the team during times of trouble in a quiet dressing room with few vivacious characters. He is cut from a far more reserved cloth than the likes of Kevin Nolan or Mark Noble.<\/p>\n

There have been flashes of it. Bowen was held back by stewards after trying to confront a fan following the League Cup defeat to this weekend\u2019s opponents Wolves in the League Cup in August.<\/p>\n

It was notable, however, that when 20-year-old Ollie Scarles was apologising to supporters, tears running down his face, after his mistake in the recent defeat to Fulham, it was not Bowen by his side but left to others to make sure the Hammers academy graduate was OK.<\/p>\n

What is indisputable, though, is that West Ham would be in a far deeper mess without him. Since the start of last season he has more than double the combined league goals and assists than any of his team-mates.<\/p>\n

His neat finish to give West Ham the lead against Brighton was his third goal in his last five outings and took him level with Michail Antonio for the most Premier League goals and assists for the club. Give it to Jarrod and hope he does something.<\/p>\n

How much longer can they keep relying on him? Does there soon come a time when West Ham have to start thinking about life without him? In five months\u2019 time?<\/p>\n

Senior club sources told\u00a0Daily Mail Sport\u00a0that Bowen\u2019s future, perhaps unsurprisingly, will depend on which division they start next season in. If West Ham go down, there\u2019s an acceptance that Bowen will be one of the stars to make way.<\/p>\n

\"Bowen <\/p>\n

Bowen has called on his side to be \u2018nasty\u2019 to play against. Streetwise. There\u2019s no evidence yet that the squad have it in them<\/p>\n

\"Former <\/p>\n

Former manager Graham Potter felt Bowen often struggled to lead – could he have done more to stop Lucas Paqueta talking himself into a red card against Liverpool in November?<\/p>\n

\"It <\/p>\n

It was notable that when youngster Ollie Scarles was apologising to supporters, tears running down his face, after his mistake in the recent defeat to Fulham, Bowen did not go to his side<\/p>\n

Even if he does keep West Ham afloat, though, Bowen may still have a decision to make. Where does he see the rest of his career playing out? He\u2019s 30 this year. He\u2019ll be 33 by the time his contract at West Ham expires in June 2030 and, by then, windows of opportunity that were once open have often long since shut.<\/p>\n

When Bowen signed that deal two years ago, he declared that he wanted to stay at West Ham for the rest of his career. It was only fair, he said, after they gave him the chance to when no one else wanted to.<\/p>\n

Those who know Bowen best talk of a humble lad who has never lost sight of where he came from, from playing for local club Leominster Minors before joining Hereford in the Conference.<\/p>\n

By the time he voiced his desire to stay at the Hammers for life, he had gone from the Conference to the Conference League, and more precisely had just scored the winning goal in the last minute of the final.<\/p>\n

It was a commitment to a club that had finished sixth and seventh in the Premier League in the previous two seasons.<\/p>\n

Now, they are on their fourth manager in 16 months, have dwindling faith in him too, while years of terrible spending and mismanagement has left West Ham staring at a fate few can say they do not deserve.<\/p>\n

At some point, if he still dreams of silverware and the grandest stages, this farmer\u2019s lad from Leominster will have to decide if he needs to be selfish for once.<\/p>\n

Few would begrudge him that. Even his father-in-law Danny Dyer, the world\u2019s biggest West Ham fan, admitted recently that he\u2019d accept Bowen leaving if he had the chance to join clubs like Real Madrid or Manchester City.<\/p>\n

\"Bowen <\/p>\n

Bowen went from the Conference to the Conference League, and then scored the winner in the final minute to give West Ham their first trophy in decades<\/p>\n

\"Bowen <\/p>\n

Bowen was keen to repay a club who gave him a shot having come up the leagues at Hereford United, who he supported (white shirt and glasses, left-hand side) as a boy<\/p>\n

\"Bowen <\/p>\n

Bowen impressed in flashes at Euro 2024 but faces an uphill battle to make it into this summer’s England World Cup squad<\/p>\n

There are few shop windows like a World Cup. Bowen knows the pain of not making it to one, having been left out of Gareth Southgate\u2019s 26-man squad for Qatar four years ago.<\/p>\n

He knows he has competition this time, too. Bukayo Saka will be start on the right but Tuchel has made it clear he sees his substitutes as finishers. Noni Madueke has struggled with injury but will be in the mix. Cole Palmer can play off the right, too.<\/p>\n

Bowen has featured in five of the eight qualifiers played under Tuchel, though he spent his summer running around his dad\u2019s potato fields on the farm to keep fit after being left out of Tuchel\u2019s squad despite ending the season with six goals in eight matches.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s got five months to make sure that does not happen again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to the biggest five months of Jarrod Bowen\u2019s career. Five months to keep West Ham in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,2047,1172,92,1785,393,31425,12765,1811,94,782,4884,15486,80318,28844,101,93,6573,16,15,11505,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-669604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-bukayo-saka","10":"tag-cole-palmer","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-david-moyes","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-england-football","15":"tag-europa-conference-league","16":"tag-europa-league","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-graham-potter","19":"tag-great-britain","20":"tag-jarrod-bowen","21":"tag-michail-antonio","22":"tag-nuno-espirito-santo","23":"tag-premier-league","24":"tag-sport","25":"tag-thomas-tuchel","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-west-ham-united","29":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115827160538275263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}