West Ham struck gold on Moyes signing whose value has skyrocketed 400%
The Conference League champions truly have played a blinder with this “electric” star
Jarrod Bowen celebrating for West Ham.
It’s been over seven months since West Ham United triumphed in the Europa Conference League and the club have probably exceeded expectations in returning to the European fight in the Premier League.
David Moyes has brought new levels of success to east London across his second tenure at the club and finished sixth in 2020/21 and seventh in 2021/22, languishing to a 14th place crescendo last year but compensating for the domestic travails by gleaning gold on the continent.
This current campaign felt like a step into the murky unknown, with the decline in the top-flight unable to be ignored and compounded by the £105m summer sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal, the midfield general crowned the Irons’ Player of the Year in successive terms.
And while recent results have left much to be desired, West Ham are seventh in the Premier League after 23 matches and topped their Europa League group back in December, now awaiting the last 16.
The funds recouped through Rice’s sale have been spent well, with deals struck last summer for the likes of James Ward-Prowse, Edson Alvarez and Mohammed Kudus.
These acquisitions have been vital but the fact that Jarrod Bowen still plies his trade in east London has been Moyes’ biggest success story since getting his mitts on silverware last June.
The fee that West Ham paid for Jarrod Bowen
It’s rather telling that one of Moyes’ first moves after being re-appointed in late December 2019 was to sign Bowen from Championship side Hull City in a deal worth £20m.
The young winger had been in fine fettle in the second tier during the first half of the 2019/20 campaign and posted 16 goals and nine assists across 29 Championship outings before making the move to east London, West Ham warding off interest from Crystal Palace to tie the transfer up.
It was quite a big figure for the Hammers to have paid for an untested commodity on the major stage but Moyes got bang for his buck and then some, Bowen shooting to the forefront of the Premier League scene and embracing the role of talisman.
Jarrod Bowen’s valuation in 2024
Across 187 appearances, Bowen, aged 27, has posted 54 goals and 36 assists, with his attacking ability highlighted through pundit Simon Jordan’s remarks that he had entered the “Salah club” after one “unbelievable” strike against Bournemouth in the early phase of the 2023/24 season.
Of course, no goal will have felt quite so momentous as his final effort of last season, racing through on goal following Lucas Paqueta’s delightful threaded pass in the dying embers against Fiorentina, expertly slotted home to send the travelling Irons into rapture: European gold was coming back to east London.
The £60k-per-week ace is undoubtedly one of the Premier League’s finest offensive forces and even attracted transfer attention from Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool last summer following Saudi Arabian interest in Mohamed Salah.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT during that saga, transfer insider Dean Jones revealed that given West Ham’s sale of Rice was so staggeringly high, any notion of a deal for Bowen would have to fall into that ballpark, saying: “If you consider that they’ve lost Declan Rice, who was their most valuable player, for over £100m, then if anyone was to come asking for Jarrod Bowen, they’re going to say ‘Well, we want the same as what we’ve got for Declan Rice then.’
Jarrod Bowen.
The £105m figure is possibly something that West Ham would have touted to the likes of Liverpool when discussing Bowen’s possible sale, in what marks an incredible 400% rise since the day of his £20m arrival from the Tigers.
Clubs might not actually be inclined to part with such an exorbitant outlay but there’s no question that Bowen has shot up to the upper echelon of Premier League forwards.
Jarrod Bowen’s importance to West Ham
Numerical figures do much to illustrate Bowen’s importance to West Ham but his actual product on the pitch and fluency within Moyes’ system is something that simply cannot be replaced.
