Cement mixers and Mo Salah inspiration: How Jarrod Bowen became West Ham’s key man

It took a while for Jarrod Bowen to convince himself he was a Premier League player.

After joining West Ham from Hull in a £20million-plus deal in January 2020, he felt like a Championship player trying to make his mark in the top flight.

But Bowen has transformed himself into one of the most productive and reliable attacking threats at the highest level. With seven goals in his last seven games, he now looks like he belongs. Only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has been involved in more goals than Bowen’s 16 this season.

Bowen has hailed Salah as his inspiration, while Liverpool have tracked the 25-year-old, as Jurgen Klopp looks to further invest in his forward line.

Bowen is eager to learn from his coaches and often studies video clips of himself back home. He will think nothing of arriving at the training ground early to go over some footage with David Moyes’s assistant, Billy McKinlay, before training.

Individual sessions have been put on to improve his weaker right foot in a bid to add a level of unpredictability to his game.

When he does cut inside onto his left, there has been a specific focus on taking his shot early and with conviction.

There was evidence of that with his goal at Leicester last weekend. Instead of dithering and wasting the moment — as had been the case too often in the past — he took one touch to control the ball before firing it past Kasper Schmeichel.

That has been a point driven home by coach Kevin Nolan, who has worked hard with Bowen to mould him into a more instinctive and clinical player in the final third. Nolan has helped Bowen become more intelligent about the attacking positions he takes up.

It is working, too. Bowen has already comfortably beaten his goal tally from last season, the