Type ‘Jarrod Bowen under-rated’ into Google and you’re spoilt for choice as an array of articles and Facebook posts appear.
On page one alone there is a West Ham site lauding his many virtues, as you would expect, along with three former players who have all in different moments insisted the 27-year-old possesses far greater talents than he is generally credited with.
These players incidentally are Ian Wright, Paul Merson and Tony Cascarino, a trio who all knew their way to goal.
Scroll down to page two and the ‘under-rated XI’ pieces crop up, all of which feature Bowen on the right wing.
You read them, you nod along and agree, and then you realise that precisely none of them were published a while back, perhaps around 2020 when the forward signed for West ham from Hull City and immediately showed a good deal of promise but remained an unfinished article.
Could the ever-industrious and versatile attacking dervish cut it at the highest level? All the evidence on the pitch screamed yes, but still the jury stayed out.
That would have been the perfect time to talk up his attributes.
No, instead they are all from 2023, a year when Bowen won his fifth England cap and accrued 31 goal involvements for the Hammers from January to December across all comps.
For the first half of that year he boosted his club’s Premier League relegation odds while firing them to a European honour. From August on he has blasted exactly a third of West Ham’s league goals as they sit proudly in sixth.
You really start to wonder if Jarrod Bowen is destined to be perceived as ‘under-rated’ no matter where his career takes him and what he achieves.
Which is never less than an odd phenomenon and in Bowen’s case downright baffling, given a career trajectory that tallies with any stonewall superstar.
He began at Hereford United, his local league club, that was until they were dissolved soon after, freeing up Hull to make a move for the talented teen.
A couple of seasons learning his trade in East Yorkshire and he was away, scoring lots of goals and winning clean sweeps in the player awards every year as the Tigers otherwise struggled in the Championship, failing to capitalise on his avalanche of strikes.
A £22m switch to the capital followed whereupon Bowen impressed with his honest endeavour, a trait that will always go down well with the paying public.
Putting in eight out of ten displays each and every week while supposedly more illustrious fare blew hot and cold ensured he quickly became a fan favourite, long before the goals came.
So when they came, he was truly adored.
Twelve goals and 12 assists in his second full season for the Irons saw them priced up in the Premier League odds as top-four contenders and though next came a dip, for both player and club, it’s fair to say he is back now, firing on all cylinders.
This term, he has converted from 28% of his attempts on goal, scoring 0.58 per 90. These numbers compare favourably with the best of the best.
It seems on reflection that Jarrod Bowen hasn’t slow-burned his way to great things but rather his ascent has been steady and inevitable. In our minds though he will always be the little engine that could. The over-achiever plucked from a lower league.
That’s not at all fair and that’s not even the worst of it. It simply defies logic.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
