Bowen signed contract with ten minutes to go
Bowen told Sky Sports he ignored friend and family when he travelled over to Leeds for his West Ham medical. And he ignored them again during his long evening train journey to London, when the clock was ticking down and the move was still hanging in the balance. Bowen was met by a West Ham employee when he train pulled in at London’s Kings Cross station and was immediately transported by car to the London Stadium to complete the deal.
“Even my mum,” Bowen told Sky Sports “I felt so bad blanking her, but I didn’t want to tell her anything in case nothing happened. As soon as I signed the contract, about 10 minutes before the deadline, I got straight on the phone to her, then to my mates. I had a lot of replying to do. Actually, I’ve only just got to the back-end of it now.”
“It all happened quite quickly. I think the West Ham bid arrived on Thursday evening, so I woke up on Friday excited to see what the day brought. I knew there had been other teams interested in January, but West Ham were the only ones that I knew had put a concrete offer in. The others, like Crystal Palace, came from nowhere a little bit and I wasn’t aware that they had actually made an official bid.”
“In the end, it was a no-brainer to join West Ham, but I still needed to take five minutes to myself because it’s a big moment for anyone to move club, especially off the pitch when it involves moving to a big city. You’ve got to take every single factor into consideration because it’s a big decision in your life. It’s one that I’ve made now and I’m very happy.”