We’ve heard a lot about hope this week, haven’t we? Mainly from an unrepentant Everton fan who has found himself with a new gaff in central London.
There was even his old mate Peter Reid, now 70 and still someone I wouldn’t dare cross, waiting in line amongst the welcoming committee in Downing Street.
I did cross him once, many moons ago over a small inclusion in a story what I wrote that upset the former Everton enforcer, it’s a mistake I wouldn’t make again. White jacket, dark glasses, fit as a butcher’s dog. If ever Andy Burnham needs a bit of ‘security’ Reidy is your man, even now.
Andy Burnham’s been rattling on about his version of hope. We’ll all see that in due course. Hope for us West Ham fans is just two words. Jarrod Bowen.
It’s been a fretful summer, no serious incoming transfers, loads of sheer ‘ pony’ over who is going and why. Some folk will believe anything it seems. And I don’t just mean the new PM.
There’s also been continued accusations that some of the Sullivan clan are still hanging around like a bad smell and influencing situations. Also that our saviour Daniel Kretinsky is not saving us as quickly as we’d hoped and been promised.
But then Bowen, who many felt would be in the blue of Everton and reunited with old boss David Moyes—and under the watchful eyes of Burnham and Reid, no doubt—announced he had a new contract and had decided to stay at West Ham.
The hope was there in spades, the relief flooded through our veins. The dark cloud had been lifted on a summer of growing misery.
And the one thing that decision revealed was that Bowen trusted the new ownership. He’d flown to Prague, scene of his greatest moment in a West Ham shirt, to meet Kretinsky and his right hand man Jiri Svarc, the real power in control of the club these days, and left convinced that his own future and the club were in good hands.
He would never have agreed to that new deal or put his own, and his family’s future in any doubt, if Kretinsky had not made it very, very clear, that the club had a good future.
Yes David Sullivan may be skulking with his 38 per cent in Epping, his two sons are still on the football club board—as directors there is no reason why they shouldn’t be—and “looking after their fathers’ interestâ€. But if anyone thinks they are having any sort of meaningful involvement in the club, that does not include Kretinsky or Svarc.
Sources a bit closer to the powers that be at West Ham insist that the latest Kretinsky shares deal with Vanessa Gold is going ahead and will be finalised. Only then will the Czech inject any money into the club.
Bowen made a calculated decision. There’s a one season buy-out in his deal, wages restricted and 2030 still the end date. He may well have looked at his England situation, after being overlooked by Thomas Tuchel in favour of two Arsenal players.
Now even Alan Pardew insisted Bowen should have gone to the World Cup and would have been a real asset there. But Tuchel said no and will still be in charge when the Euro’s come around next season for the 2028 finals. Bowen may well believe his chances of a recall by the German are remote, so why not give West Ham another season or two.
Either way, it was one of those moments. We all know where we were when the Bowen deal was announced and we know just how much hope that flooded through our fan base.
Pardew said Bowen will be the best player in the Championship, he was surprised he was still with us—Everton, Newcastle and Aston Villa were all in for him. But the family ties and his genuine love for the club convinced our skipper was in safe hands.
But the narrative about transfers is getting tiresome. We are waiting for Premier League quality players it seems. But we are seeing players we have been linked with—Aboul Fatawu for example—move to Premier League sides. Many players won’t join us because we are in the Championship, or are waiting for Premier League interest. Those are the facts of life where we are.
Matty Fernandes has gone, seemingly to balance the books after the last annual report. Cry Summerville will be gone because he wants out. Dinos Mavraponus will be another to get the Kretinsky treatment of a new contract and a one-season release clause.
We must shift the highly overpaid players like Areola, Todibo, Ward-Prowse, Fullkrug, Alvarez and Cornet for no other reason than we cannot afford a wage bill like that in the Championship and it would smash the EFL expenditure rules.
Mads Hermansen and Tomas Soucek—back from World Cup injury by October we hear—are staying put and I would love to see youth players like Ezra Mayers, Lewis Orford, Finn Herrick, Ryan Buttrum, Preston Fearon and Airidas Golambeckis retained in the squad. We should be encouraging these, kids, best we’ve had in years, before spending money on youngsters of a similar age from abroad.
I’m not sure about the narrative that “they have to prove themselves in a fortnight,†more likely they have been told to wait a few weeks to see who, if any, we sign, before we decide on loans.
The hope now, thanks to Bowen, is there for all to see. The hate? Well that should disappear soon enough when the Sullivans are gone and pushed further into the background by the Kretinsky plan that encouraged Bowen to stay the course.
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