Thomas Tuchel will tomorrow announce a decision which could either make or break the heart of West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen. However, there are unconfirmed reports emerging this evening that the Hammers captain has been excluded from the squad.
At 10am on tommorrow morning, the England national football team boss will unveil his World Cup squad and Bowen is very much hoping to be part of the plans.
Let’s not dress it up.
Bowen has endured a poor season in a bad West Ham side.
But despite often not looking fully fit, he has still managed to maintain an impressive level of output and this season has even added set-piece delivery to his already extensive list of ways he can influence matches.
Bowen Numbers Still Stand Out
Eighteen goal involvements in a relegation-threatened side is a genuinely impressive return.
And Bowen has consistently remained involved in Tuchel’s previous England squads.
However, during much of that period, England were also dealing with injuries to several attacking players.
Now with Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka both fit and available again, there may realistically only be one additional attacking place remaining.
Madueke Threat Could Hurt Bowen
Tuchel has repeatedly spoken highly of former Chelsea winger Noni Madueke, now at Arsenal.
And that alone could spell trouble for Bowen.
Whilst Madueke comes nowhere near matching Bowen’s combined goal and assist numbers this season, every manager has personal favourites and sometimes something as small as that can end up deciding a squad place.
The biggest concern for West Ham is how any decision impacts Bowen ahead of Sunday’s enormous game against Leeds United at the London Stadium.
But we’ll all have to wait until tomorrow to discover for certain whether Bowen heads into the match desperate to prove Tuchel wrong or buoyed by the news he’s made the plane.
The fact that no one apart from West Ham sites is even talking about Bowen’s absence is telling, but in what world Madueke is deemed good enough for England is laughable – a bang average player !
The sad thing is Bowen will be even more absent on Sunday than has been for the past few games.
18 goal involvements in a poor season? Pull the other one 😂
It’s big club bias, we’ve seen it before with England squads. The most ludicrous example was Theo Walcott. We can be dismayed but we shouldn’t be surprised.
Bowens not had his best season but he’s not been poor by any stretch. I remember when he was literally the only player in the team we could rely on to produce something and I think the season has worn him down. He hasn’t produced for a few games of late but over the season he’s provided plenty of goals and assists as always. He should definitely be going to the World Cup in place of madueke.
It happens Harry McGuire has posted he’s devastated not being included.
Thought has was a dead cert but no won’t be going.
Thinks he’s had an excellent season at Man Utd.
Its no big surprise Bowen not being included in the squad.
He has been awful for us now for months,at a time where we really needed him to step up and show up for West Ham hes disappeared, just look at Newcastle the other day,awful.
So on his form since January he doesn’t deserve to be in it…..saying that neither does Madueke or Henderson.
Who cares about the World Cup anyway
Cole Palmer according to reports isn’t in the squad either. Based on performances this season, I can’t see either having any complaints about being excluded. We needed Bowen to fire and he hasn’t.
The BBC report that Palmer has been dropped. It’s all just gossip. Let’s see at 10am