West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen has vowed to stay and help the Hammers claim promotion back to the Premier League.
West Ham suffered relegation to the Championship on the final day of last season despite victory over Leeds United as they needed Everton to beat Tottenham Hotspur in order for them to stay up at the North London rival’s expense, which didn’t materialise as Spurs ran out 1-0 winners in their game.
Bowen’s future consequently was called into question given that he is one of the Hammers’ valuable assets but after a summer of reflection and meetings with shareholders; Daniel Kretinsky and Jiri Svarc, he decided to stay at the London Stadium to spearhead a promotion challenge.
In an interview with West Ham’s official website, Bowen explained that he wanted to honour what he said in the wake of their relegation by remaining at the club.
“For me, it was only right to speak when the time’s right in circumstances like this, then it’s back to talking about football.
“I flew out to Prague in the Czech Republic to meet Daniel and Jiří and the ambition that I got from them, certainly in terms of the direction the Club wants to move in, it interests me a lot. It didn’t take a lot for me, because this Club means a lot to me.
“I did an interview after the game and said my vision is to get this Club back in the Premier League. Sometimes you think it falls on deaf ears and people say ‘he’s just saying that’. There have been things written and different things said and you have to look at it and bite your tongue sometimes.
“But when I say something, I don’t hide away from it. For me, the main thing is to get this Club back into the Premier League and speak to people in the Club about what we want to do moving forward as a Club for the better of the Club. It was a no-brainer for me to be here and the vision is clear, it’s the Premier League.”
Bowen also iterated that every member of the squad must buy into the ambition such is the difficult nature of the Championship and scheduling patterns.
“Firstly, a buy-in from every single player. The Championship is not an easy division. We’ve seen that in recent years. I was part of the Championship side many years ago now, but it’s not easy. It’s 46 games, tough games, midweek, Saturday, Tuesday, Friday.
“We need the ability to go again and be together as a group, because there’s going to be disappointment at times, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on us to go and win the league straight away. That’s our aim, but I’m telling you now, it’s not going to be as easy as that.
“It’s about what we create as a group, what environment we want to create, because when things are hard, we have to put our arms around each other, look at our teammates in the eye and know that we’re going to go again in three days’ time after a game. Ultimately, that’s the main thing.
“You can talk about talent and things like that which are also important, but I think the most important thing is a desire, an attitude and a winning mentality. That’s what we have to build, what we have to create, whoever’s in the building. For me, those are the most important things that I think we’re going to need this season because, like I said, I think there’s going to be a different pressure on us now.
“It’s a long, long season, the Championship. You can never get too high, never get too low, because there’s a lot of things that can happen but certainly, in terms of mentality, in terms of attitude, those are the things that we’re going to need. We’re going to need a real tight-knit, a real togetherness, a real understanding of what we want from each other.
“My role is captain here. I know people look to me to set those standards and that’s all I try to do every single day. That’s what’s expected of me and I’ll be the voice and demand those standards and that every single player put in the hard yards and hard work every single day. That’s how it should be.”
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