‘I felt I had done as much as I could at Hull City’, admits Jarrod Bowen

While the versatile attacker was strutting his stuff in East Yorkshire, the Tigers harboured genuine ambitions of finishing in a Championship play-off position.

However, since his January departure for the Premier League, City’s season has imploded and Grant McCann’s team have been in free-fall, going from promotion hopefuls to relegation candidates.

Hull have not won a game without the 17-goal forward in their ranks and while things could well have worked out rather differently had he stayed at the KCOM Stadium, Bowen has revealed that he felt as if he had nothing more to offer in amber and black.

“I felt I had done as much as I could at Hull, and I felt like I had earned this opportunity now,” Bowen said during a radio interview on TalkSPORT.

“I’m starting down here again and I’ve got to work my way up with my time here. Hopefully it’s a very long time.

“It’s everyone’s dream to play in the Premier League and, when a team like West Ham came in for me, it was a no-brainer.

“Look at the stadium. When I signed, I went to the stadium and I looked around and got to take it all in. It’s incredible.

“Making my home debut, coming out in front of all those people. That’s when it hit me. That was what I dreamed of.

“I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Bowen’s transfer to the top-flight sees him follow in the footsteps of his former Tigers team-mates Andrew Robertson – now of Liverpool – and Manchester United captain Harry Maguire.

Asked if he was inspired and motivated by what his old colleagues have gone on to achieve, Bowen replied: “It’s massive. Robbo and I used to train against each other all the time. Harry Maguire and I actually sat on the bench together.

“He wasn’t playing too much at Hull in the first six months of our last Premier League season, but you could tell they were both good at the time.

“They’re still only young as well, and they’ve gone on to do some unbelievable things. Harry has gone to a World Cup semi-final; Robbo has won the Champions League. It’s unreal. I want to try and follow in their footsteps.

“Coming from Hull, I was there for five-and-a-half years. I worked my way up to get to where I was, and now I’ve joined West Ham I’ve got to work my way up again to get to the best levels I can get to.”

Meanwhile, City’s on-loan Leicester defender Callum Elder has opened up on the circumstances that led to his move to Hull last summer, and also revealed how the deal almost fell through.

Speaking to Rio Ferdinand for an interview on Instagram, the Australian said: “I did enjoy going on loan and being part of a first-team environment but you get to a certain point in your career when you want a platform to build on.

“You want to know where you’ll be for the next two or three years. I got to that point in the summer.

“I needed to make sure that if I didn’t have a future at Leicester then I’d set myself up to have a future somewhere else.

“I sat down [with Brendan Rodgers] and had a really good chat. He said I wasn’t going to get the games I needed while I was still at the club. It was an honest chat and what I needed to hear.

“At the time I was speaking with Grant McCann, the Hull City manager. I’d worked with Grant in a previous loan at Peterborough and I’d enjoyed working with him. We’d spoken a lot since that loan and the chance came for me.”

After a prolonged period of negotiation, a deal appeared to have been agreed that would see Elder join Hull, only for the left-back to then receive some bad news.

“I thought early on in pre-season it was going to happen and I got a phone call saying the deal was off three days before the window shut,” he added.

“I was scrambling a bit. I didn’t want to go on loan again but I might have to because I could sit here doing nothing at 24. Am I going to have to sit at Leicester and see my contract out for a year?

“Then, the night before deadline day, I got another call to say it’s going to happen. That probably sums football up.

“Four weeks of back and forth to get a deal done, then for it to be squashed and then to get a call to say it’s going to happen. Within half an hour I’ve signed the paperwork.

“I was delighted to get it done because Hull’s a massive club. I’d spoken to Harry Maguire and he had some really positive words to say about the club.”

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