Everton could roll back the years with Jarrod Bowen transfer but Hayden Hackney fear remains

Everton have been linked with a move for West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen

Everton manager David Moyes’ reported pursuit of Jarrod Bowen could bring a talent to the Blues not witnessed for three decades.

Alan Nixon, a seasoned journalist when it comes to transfer tales, states via his Patreon that Moyes is ready to go all out to reunite himself with the West Ham United captain at Hill Dickinson Stadium, pushing a £20million bid having made the England international his first-choice target with the Irons’ relegation from the Premier League meaning a deal can be struck.

Bowen is a big admirer of Moyes, who was the manager who gave him his big break in the top flight when he brought him to the London Stadium from Hull City for £22million in January 2020. Writing in his programme notes before West Ham’s home game with Everton in April, he said: “We all know how good a manager David Moyes is, and how good Alan Irvine and Billy McKinlay are as his assistants, and he gets the best out of his players. I’m certainly not surprised they’ve done so well.”

In turn, the Leominster-born star, who like one of the Blues’ greatest wide men Kevin Sheedy, started his career at Hereford United, netted the winning goal for the Hammers against Fiorentina in the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League final to secure the first major trophy of Moyes’ managerial career and end the club’s 43-year silverware drought.

But in truth, as much as West Ham are under pressure to sell after going down – like with Middlesbrough and Hayden Hackney – it feels like Everton are going to have to offer considerably more to secure his signature, and even then, there is likely to be intense competition for a player of his talents, possibly from teams able to offer the lure of European football.

He might not have made it into Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions squad for the current World Cup, but the man who has been capped 22 times is a proven performer. In his five full seasons at West Ham, he hit double figures each time with all competition goal returns of 18, 13, 20, 14 and 11.

Cutting inside from the right flank and firing in shots with his left foot, he’s reminiscent of the Goodison Park flier who was an inverted winger before the term entered common parlance, Andrei Kanchelskis. Snapped up from Manchester United for a then club record £5million fee, the Russian international enjoyed one of the most spectacular debut seasons of any Blues star in the modern era as his 16 goals helped Joe Royle’s side finish sixth, Everton’s highest position of the Premier League’s first decade.

Curiously, the summer of 1995 when Kanchelskis headed down the East Lancs Road to make his big move was also a pivotal moment for another J Bowen as the original run of Bullseye came to an end with Jim Bowen as host.

Namesake Jarrod would hardly be a ‘gamble’ for the Blues but the fear is that without significant backing from The Friedkin Group, who have been keeping a much lower profile than their approach with Roma who they have just guided into the Champions League for the first time, West Ham’s star man could end up being a ‘look what you could have won.’

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