One of the biggest deals of the January transfer window saw Jarrod Bowen move from Hull City to West Ham United for a reported £22m.
The versatile winger, 23, signed a five-and-a-half-year contract with the Hammers on deadline day and could be poised to make his debut in Gameweek 26, having not arrived in time to be eligible to face Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend.
Price up by Fantasy Premier League as a £6.5m midfielder, Bowen moves to east London with a reputation for scoring goals: the ex-Hull prospect had found the back of the net on 16 occasions in 29 Championship appearances this season before his big-money move.
Bowen spent a lot of his time as an inverted winger on the right flank at the KCOM Stadium but has also deputised as an auxiliary centre-forward and in ‘the hole’, which presents him with a number of different routes into the Hammers’ starting XI.
Upon Bowen’s capture, West Ham manager David Moyes said:
We are delighted to welcome Jarrod to West Ham United. I think he could be a big success.
He’s probably what you’d call a wide forward these days, or perhaps an old-fashioned inside-right. He has played a couple of games as a second centre forward or as a no.10.
When you score goals like he does, and in the numbers he does, in the Championship, it will give you a great chance of scoring goals in the Premier League. We were attracted to the goals he has scored over the years; not just in one year, but over the last three years.
The player himself said:
I know this is the next step at another level. People expect me to score and I’ve put myself in that position. It’s a challenge I relish and one I’m looking forward to because scoring goals in the Premier League and winning games for this club would be unbelievable.
The fans will always see 110 per cent when I play, and I think that’s the main thing – and then with everything else, I just try to excite people and get people off their seats.
What can we Fantasy managers expect from Bowen in the remaining third of 2019/20, then?
Our Scout Report below uses data from the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area, so only those who have signed up to valid packages will be able to access it in full.
The History and Statistics
Born in December 1996, Bowen was knocked back by Aston Villa and Cardiff City in trials as a youth.
He began his career in earnest with local club Hereford United, progressing through the academy side and into the first-team set-up at the tender age of 17.
The young attacking midfielder made eight Conference Premier (now National League) appearances at the back-end of the 2013/14 season, scoring once and helping the struggling Bulls to survival – although his hometown club were subsequently expelled from the division for financial reasons.
Bowen then made the move to Hull in July 2014, although featured only for the under-18s and under-21s in his first two campaigns on Humberside.
Finally making his Tigers debut in August 2016 in an EFL Cup tie, Bowen went on to make seven Premier League appearances (as a £4.5m FPL forward) as first Mike Phelan and then Marco Silva were unable to prevent Hull from dropping into the second tier.
The 2017/18 campaign was Bowen’s breakthrough season as he immediately established himself as a first-team regular under Leonid Slutsky, consolidating his place in the starting XI even after the Russian had departed.
Bowen was an ever-present last season (only one of his 46 league run-outs came as a substitute) and was again integral to the Hull side in 2019/20, not missing a single minute of Championship football until his move to east London in late-January.
The new West Ham midfielder made 124 league appearances for the Tigers in total, scoring on 52 occasions.
The full breakdown is as follows:
| Season | Apps | Goals | Assists |
| 2016/17 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017/18 | 42 | 14 | 2 |
| 2018/19 | 46 | 22 | 4 |
| 2019/20 | 29 | 16 | 7 |
