30th November 2025 Daniel Luker (@danielluker_)
West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen’s ability to lead the team has been questioned after suffering defeat at the hands of the PL Champions.
Jarrod Bowen’s West Ham captaincy has always been a pretty big talking point. Yes he’s our best player and he leads by example, but is he the right character to lead West Ham United?
West Ham fans have grown up with a lot of what a lot of English football fans refer to as ‘proper’ captains. Loud, outspoken characters that like to show they’re in charge. Players like Mark Noble, Kevin Nolan, Scott Parker in recent years.
On an afternoon when Hammers honoured the late former captain and legend Billy Bonds MBE on the day of his sad death. The clubs current captain has received criticism, because he clearly isn’t cut from the same cloth.
Look, we all love Jarrod Bowen, I think he’s my favourite ever West Ham player already for what he’s done for the club, especially the moment in Prague. But me and a lot of Hammers fans alike just don’t think he’s meant to be the captain.
This was highlighted massively against Liverpool this afternoon, and it’s become a huge talking point amongst fans both in the ground and on social media after the match.
As captain, Bowen needed to step in when Lucas Paquetá was mouthing off to the referee. The Brazilian received a yellow card for dissent towards the official.
After this, you’d think knowing Paquetá as Bowen does, he would need to be removed from the situation so he couldn’t make it any worse. But that didn’t happen.
Instead, Jarrod was stood next to the Brazilian as he continued to shout at the ref for his poor decisions even after receiving a yellow for doing just that.
Unsurprisingly, the former Flamengo man received a second yellow and will now miss Thursdays trip to Old Trafford through suspension.
In fact it wasn’t even a Hammers player that pulled him away from the situation. It was Liverpool captain Van Dijk and his Brazilian compatriot Allison that did.
I feel like if Callum Wilson was still on the pitch at that time he would’ve stepped in, but he wasn’t. We can’t rely on a striker that can only play an hour to be our only real leader.
It feels weird sort of blaming Bowen for the red when it was completely down to Paquetá’s idiocy. But something like this just wouldn’t have happened with a Mark Noble, or even Declan Rice
Our ‘Brazilian Magnifico’ would have been pulled away from the scene by Nobes and shouted at, telling him to calm down. Jarrod Bowen just isn’t the type of person to do that, and that’s nothing against him, just maybe he isn’t meant to be captain of this club.
That feels like a horrible thing to say because the love West Ham fans have for our skipper is unbreakable and he is the only real candidate for the role in the squad.
This Hammers team is calling out for a bit of leadership and it’s definitely something we need to address in January. No, we shouldn’t strip the captaincy off Bowen, he just needs more leaders in the heart of the team to help us kick on.