West Ham Zone View: Ex Hammer gives worrying take on Jarrod Bowen signing
West Ham United’s transfer deadline day signing of attacker Jarrod Bowen from Hull City was a huge relief for the club’s supporters.
The Hammers needed to do something big to recover from what’s been an awful season so far, and Bowen was about as good as it could get.
He’s got 17 goals and six assists in the Championship this campaign despite not being an out and out striker and only 23 years of age.
That’s a phenomenal record and, given the disappointing displays of Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson this term, is exactly what the east London outfit required.
However, former West Ham right back Glen Johnson recently provided a more pessimistic take on the signing.
“The owners have spent a bit of money on him, but ideally you want someone who is established in the Premier League,” he told the Daily Star.
“Are they tactically buying that player and thinking ‘well we might be down, but he’s a great player for the Championship next year’. Hopefully not.
“There’s such a big gap between the Championship and Premier League, all of a sudden lads are playing against world-class defenders. He’s not necessarily going to be flying from day one.”
It’s kind of strange that Johnson is coming out with this, and bizarre that he thinks there’s a huge gap between the second tier and the top flight.
That’s simply not the case, if anything the gap has narrowed. That’s evident by the success of people like Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, Jack Grealish and, heck, the entire Sheffield United squad.
Yes, Bowen will find life more difficult, but he’s shown that he has all the talent in the world to make the step-up.
But it’s Johnson’s point about the Hammers owners maybe buying Bowen for a Championship campaign next term that’s the most worrying.
Could that really be the case? Hopefully not, but you wouldn’t put it past the two Davids, that’s for sure.
In other West Ham news, a former England international has ripped into former Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini.