Jarrod Bowen speaks on West Ham’s relegation battle, what’s gone wrong, speculation, message to fans

Jarrod Bowen speaks on West Ham’s relegation battle, what’s gone wrong, speculation on his future, a message to fans and much more.

The 29 year old sat down with Sky Sports News this week to discuss West Ham’s difficult season, with their battle for survival going down to the final day.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:10 – On Newcastle game
00:49 – Not being good enough this season
02:03 – On what’s gone wrong
04:41 – On what the issues are
05:50 – Impact of last season
07:40 – On impact of captaincy
11:00 – Rebuilding next season
11:55 – On West Ham future
12:45 – On speculation over future
14:50 – Message to the fans
15:45 – Watching Chelsea vs Spurs game

Interviewer: Jarrod, I know it’s a difficult time to come and speak to you. First of all, how are you doing personally?

Jarrod: Yeah, no, it’s not been the the weekend that that we wanted going to Newcastle. We knew it was going to be a difficult game. I think it’s their last home go. We knew that they’d want to kind of put on a performance, put on a show for their fans. But we it was in our hands to go there and get something from the game and felt confident from the Arsenal game. Even though we lost, I thought, you know, we had chances in the game and defended really well. And it was just a case of in the first 20 minutes um we weren’t at the the speed, the level, the standard and we made mistakes and you know rightly got punished.

Interviewer: Has it felt like a bit of a roller coaster at times this season? You’ve had good periods. You felt like you’re going to go over the line and do it and then you’ve had dips like the weekend. How has that felt emotionally?

Jarrod: Just not good enough really. I think when you’re when you want to be a top side in a top club, you consistently have to get results. whether that be you might play terrible one weekend but you pick up something from the game. But we haven’t we’ve kind of been up and down a lot this season and you know it’s costing us and that’s the most frustrating thing because you know it’s almost not gifting goals but always giving them away a little bit too easily and in the situation that we’re in in the league that you’re in at the highest level any mistake is going to get punished and we found that out a lot of times this season.

Interviewer: You said there about gifting goals. When we start to assess some of the issues that have been occurring this season, when you look back at games, is it frustrating that a few of them like at the weekend are just individual errors? You can do all the work you want in the week and then those moments are what leads to conceding a goal?

Jarrod: Yeah. No. Listen, everyone, this is not a blame culture or anything like that. Everyone’s going to make mistakes on the pitch. You know, I’m going to miss chances. People I’m going to make mistakes in in a different way. Everyone’s going to make mistakes. We’ve just got to, you know, try and react for our team and around them. But I think those little mistakes are, you know, ultimately the difference in in the games that that we’ve had, and like I said, I think we’ve had too many of them all across the board really.

Interviewer: And what does that come down to? Is it a confidence?

Jarrod: Maybe maybe confidence. Yeah, obviously confidence is low. You never want to look at excuses and say, ‘Ah, confidence is low. That’s why we didn’t perform’ because like I just said, this is the highest level. You have to even when you’re not playing, not feeling as high as you want to be. You still have to go in there, graft a graft a result out, grind a result out in in that sort of way. So, of course, confidence is low and confident comes from good performances, winning games, and like I said, we’ve had that a few times this season where we’ve, you know, put in a few good performances back to back and then, you know, a week later, we’ll just turn up and not look like the side that we know. And that’s probably the most frustrating thing because, you know, the group here is good. We train really well every single day. Everyone’s committed to the cause. And then on the weekend, it’s, you know, we go the other way sometimes, which, you know, is never nice to to hear. It’s never nice to be part of, but you can I don’t think you can ever put one finger on it because there’s lots of things that you could probably analyse and assess and see what see what we done on the weekend. It’s just a catalog of errors I think.

Interviewer: You said that you can’t blame the confidence. It was really interesting. Bruno Fernandes did an interview recently talking about their start of the season before Carrick arrived and he said you’d concede a goal and the heads would just go down and you’d think it’s happening again. It’s that sometimes a feeling. It’s not using it as an excuse, but it’s that sense of tension that you can see and you’re like, it’s happening and there’s a bit of panic because you know how much it means to all of you and to everyone watching.

Jarrod: Yeah, I remember we played a game home to Wolves on the Friday night a few weeks ago and the first 20 minutes you know they started really strong. We was probably a little bit in our shell, a little bit tense. I think we go the other way. I think we concede and then we, you know, think, oh no, we have to, you know, step up and go and score the goal here. Whereas, you know, it’s easy saying we should start like that every single week, of course that’s what you want to do, but tension a lot can lead to it. I spoke about that Wolves game we scored to go one at halftime and we didn’t really have many chances but like I said it’s those moments where you’re not playing as well, if you can get something going into half time and then you come out the second half you know you’ve got to play better and then we went on to win 4-0. So it’s those little times in games where you might not be playing well. You might not be playing well for 60, 70, 80 minutes but then you stay in the game for as long as possible. You be hard to beat. You be compact. you be resolute as a team and then you’ll get your moments to, you know, nick a game. It’s not the way people want to see, you know, us play every single week, but sometimes certainly in the situation that that we’re in, sometimes you need those sorts of results and performances.

Interviewer: It’s interesting that you said as well, it’s difficult to pinpoint, isn’t it? It’s difficult to pinpoint one thing that’s going wrong because if it was, you didn’t simply just change it and do better. We’ve touched on the mentality, on the pitch side of things, where do you think the issues have cropped up predominantly?

Jarrod: I think, like I said, I think it’s been a a whole host of different things. In some games, we’ve conceded a lot of goals, but, you know, that I’m not blaming, you know, you could say you concede goals. You look at defence. That’s that’s not the case because, you know, the first form of defence starts from attack and it starts from us doing the press and making it hard for them to come into our half. So, we’ve had times where we’ve conceded a lot of goals this season in games. And in this league, you can’t expect to concede two or three every single week and win games because the quality is so high. And another thing, probably going forward, we haven’t scored enough that we wanted to do. So, it’s probably a bit of both that’s probably just evened itself out in the end, and we haven’t done enough in in both boxes probably.

Interviewer: Do you think it predates this season a bit because you said after the game, you know, we were battling at times last season as well. So, do you think the issues go back a bit further?

Jarrod: Yeah, I think you’ve got to look at that because, you know, it’s been what, three years this summer since, you know, we won a European trophy, even that season, we finished 14th or something. We weren’t that great. And I think the season after we finished up in the top half of the table and then from then we’ve just kind of finished I think we finished 15th last season, we weren’t great, we got ourselves out of it. So, it’s not like this season’s just, you know, come straight away. You know, that it was starting to creep in a little bit last season. But we thought we’d, you know, be better this season. Obviously had a new manager, then we changed manager after a few games, new players coming in. And you never want to sit here and give excuses. That’s not, you know, what what I’m about, what what I do because I think ultimately it’s us. It’s all on us. We’re the ones that play. You can be set up in a way you can do things, but when you cross that line, it’s you 11 players on the pitch against their 11 players on the pitch. That’s ultimately what it is, and we just haven’t played well enough that I think that’s like we said you can you can’t pinpoint one thing but I think one point you can pinpoint is that we haven’t been good enough as a group.

Interviewer: You’re obviously trying to find solutions and at the weekend you start with a different system you pay three at the back and then quickly after you concede those goals you you switch to a four. Is it difficult when you’re trying to find solutions and you’re trying to get results but then you’re having to adapt really quickly with even within games to find a level of consistency?

Jarrod: No again I don’t think so because the week before against Arsenal we played back five. Um defended really really well I thought. Had a couple of opportunities in that game as well and that’s against Arsenal who are probably the best defensive side in terms of goals conceded in in the league. So we knew that one was going to be tough but I thought we performed well in that formation and we’ve kind of flickered between the two in terms of three at the back, four at the back but the messages are still the same. You know it’s still the same the same thing. People are in the same positions basically. You might have one extra defender or one extra striker. So for me, I don’t look at a formation and go, you know what, I think that’s the wrong way. I think we know what we have to do with a three at the back. We know what we have to do at a four in the back, but you know, we just haven’t done it well enough.

Interviewer: On a personal level, you’re often the the player as captain that comes out, speaks to the media. You’re you’re dealing with a lot. I’m sure your family as well. You’ve got a lot of West Ham fans associated with you. How have you found it personally? Has it been a struggle? And how have you kept a level of perspective?

Jarrod: Well, first and foremost, being captain of a football club is is a huge honour. Let’s not get away from that. It’s still the biggest honour that anyone can ever have in, you know, I think in their one of in their careers. So, for me, it’s a huge honour. Of course, that comes with extra responsibility, extra questions to be answered, extra, you know, people pointing the finger at you. But I think for me, it’s I’ve been here six years now, you know, I think I understand how this how this club works. How they want their players to play, how they want their team to play. So, for me, I just try and be the best best version of me. And I’ve said it in a couple of times in interviews. I’ll get things wrong as as captain. I’m only human. I’ll won’t play as well as I like in in some weeks, which is normal. I think from where I’ve been, people expect you to, you know, almost score every week or do something every week and you know that’s what I try to do. But sometimes it doesn’t hit those heights. Um and you’ve got to be brave enough. It’s easy when things are going well and you know you take the plaudits and different things. But I think you really learn about yourself when you know the fingers are being pointed, the questions are being answered. And for me, it’s just in my career, I always want to look back at it and go, no what-ifs, no regrets. I wish I would have done that different. I wish obviously the situation’s not been great this season. Um, and I haven’t played to the standards that I know that I can, but like I said, I’m I’m big enough to accept that I just haven’t played well enough. I can look for excuse. I can look for different things, but in terms of my preparation, in terms of playing the game, I’ve got no what if, no regrets in that manner, for sure.

Interviewer: What have you learned about yourself?

Jarrod: Just how to deal with those tough times, like I said, I’ve always been, even when I was at hole before, almost kind of similar trajectory. Started and then got into the team, scored goals, things were going well, had a few rough moments as well in different things, but just kept a level head through that. Then when you come here, it’s obviously a bigger step up. You’re going from the Championship to the Premier League, playing for a really big big club in the Premier League with a lot of history, a lot of good players that have come through and played for this club and represented this club. We’ve done a lot of good things, you know, European games, big derby games that we’ve been in, big cup competitions that we’ve been in. So, like I said, when it’s going easy, it’s easy to go along with it and feel like you’re you’re up here. For me, it’s I’m trying to stay here the the whole way because when those lows are coming now, it’s just about me speaking, having my family there, people close around, and really just lean on them when things aren’t going so well because I think you’re so full on every single day of football, football, football, football. You know, how can I be train well? How can I prepare for the next game? And I think if you just so tunnel visions, you’ve got no you’ve got no rest to have your feelings, have those emotions, have those things when things aren’t going so well. What you going to do? What you going to lean on, so for me, I just try and speak to my family, keep them close, obviously got my children, you know, spend time with them away from there. And when it’s when it’s football, it’s football. And like I said, it hasn’t been the season that that we’ve wanted. And, you know, I’m at the front of that being captain, being here a long time. And you know, I take that responsibility on my shoulders. You know, I really I really care about this club and the position that we’re in really really hurts me. Um, so I’ll be the first one to, you know, admit that this season hasn’t been nowhere near good enough and, you know, we’re just trying to finish the season on a high now.

Interviewer: How do you think this club rebuilds to come back stronger next season?

Jarrod: I just think we got the support and everything’s got to be there. Everyone’s got to be aligned on and off the pitch. You could pushing in the same direction for the club. Obviously, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the game. There’s a lot that can change from now until Sunday in terms of different results, what can happen, different scenarios that could take it to the last day. So, you know, right now speaking, it’s difficult to say what’s coming next because we don’t know what’s coming next because we have to wait for a game to see what happens in that way. But certainly in terms of the club, I think this is a Premier League club. I think we’ve proven that over the years. We’ve shown that that level of consistency. But like I said, we’re going to have to see and then whatever happens then it’s going to be another conversation for how do we rebuild, how do we bounce back, how do we get back into the Premier League.

Interviewer: Do you see yourself being part of that rebuild as well?

Jarrod: I think every single season I have conversations you know every single year I sit down at the end of I’ve done it since I’ve been at Hull, sit down at the end of every season think right what’s the best what’s the best for me what what do I feel what’s my feeling what’s my gut feeling and then make a decision and go with it there. I think it would be wrong for me to sit down and start saying what’s going to happen in a few weeks to come because ultimately for me we we have a big game coming up Sunday whatever happens there’s a lot of things that can happen as you know there’s a World Cup squad on Friday there’s you know fighting for our lives on Sunday so for me it’s probably one of the biggest weeks in my career so it would be wrong for me to start looking past into the next few weeks and start putting my energy elsewhere because for me like I just said to you I love this club I have a lot of care for this club so I want to put all my energy into this week that’s that’s it and then whatever happens later, that’s another conversation to to cross with when we find out what’s going on.

Interviewer: And I’m sure it feels difficult as well being on the receiving end of speculation.

Jarrod: Yeah

Interviewer: And so many people talking about your future when, like you said, you’re waiting to have those conversations yourself.

Jarrod: Yeah. No, a lot of stuff gets printed. That’s, you know, what what happens in social media and newspapers these days, a lot of false things gets put out there. But for me, like I said, I haven’t even thought about what’s going to happen in the future yet because I think it’s, you know, I’m representing this club. I’m the captain of this club. I have a big big feeling towards this club and my heart is here. My love is my love is here and you know I’ve got to put all my energy into this week. That’s the bottom line is like you said there’s going to be certain things with people saying what’s going to happen next season and you know they’ve heard this, we’ve heard this but you know from me that’s that’s false. You know it’s when there’s time to speak and time to address different things then you know it will be the first one to come from me because that’s how I work. You know I’m quite honest. I’m quite open. I’ll always address different sorts of things, but for me now, my energy has to be into this week. There’s there’s no other way.

Interviewer: Tell me what this club means to you?

Jarrod: It means everything. You know, it’s I’ve moved down here in 2020, just before COVID lockdown. With me and my best friend moved down here, then we go into lockdown. So, the first kind of year or so was definitely strange, but then since then, you know, I’ve been married, I’ve got kids, I’ve, you know, my life is here and they’ve grown up watching me play for West Ham. So, it’s a big part of my life. It’s a big part of their life. You know, my family from Hereford, they’re West Ham fans now as well, you know. So, it’s just taken over my life, you know, and it’s something that I’ve always felt like I had an arm around me with it. I always felt like almost fitted right in from from the first day, you know. I’m a player that wants to leave everything out there, wants to work hard for the fans, wants to represent the club in the highest way possible. And you know, these what these fans want. You know, they want someone who’s proud to play for the club. And like I said, we’ve achieved a lot of really good things in the time that I’ve been here. Obviously, the last two seasons for me has been has been difficult because I want this club to succeed more than probably anyone else. So, for the last two years, it’s been… yeah, of course, it’s been difficult because you never want to be at the bottom end of a Premier League table. But certainly, in terms of what does a club mean to me, it mean it means everything. You know, I’ve been here six years, changed my life in in different ways on the pitch and off the pitch.

Interviewer: What would you say to those fans who are understandably feeling frustration? They have so much love, so much passion for this club.

Jarrod: I can only apologise for what we’ve done so far this season and probably last season as well because it’s it’s not been to the levels that that we’ve set. But one thing is the fans, you know, they voiced their frustration because they’re rightly so, you know, they care for this club. They’ve been supporting this club longer than most of us have been alive in the dressing room. you know, so they’ve got a big support, a big loyalty towards the club and it will hurt them as much as it hurts us to see where we are, but we have to stick together. You know, we’ve been in a position where it’s in our hands. It’s been now in our hands. Now that’s been taken away. It’s not in our hands. Now we have to just hope and pray that, you know, a result happens for us tonight and then we go into the weekend, we have to stick together and just hold that little percent that we’ve got of a chance of staying up. That’s that’s what we can do. We still if we go into the game Sunday having a chance of staying up, we have to take that in together and go to Sunday and win the game.

Interviewer: Do you watch the game tonight or is it TV or?

Jarrod: Yeah. No, I think you have to watch the game. You can’t avoid it. You can’t, you know, try and hide away from it because ultimately you’re going to find out the result one way or the other. I think for me, I’m going to I’m going to watch it, cause like I said, it’s it was always in our hands for the last few weeks, now that’s been taken out of our hands. So now we have to sit there and watch it and watch a result, whatever it is. And whatever it is, we have to deal with that in the way that we do.”