It’s an open secret that Arsenal urgently need a new striker this summer, and a host of big names are filling up the transfer gossip columns each day.
One player we’re yet to see attracting the kind of interest he merits, however, is West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen, who has been having a tremendous season in David Moyes’ over-achieving side.
The 25-year-old has played a variety of attacking roles this season, including adapting to filling in as a false-nine on occasion, with an impressive return of 14 goals and 9 assists in all competitions so far.
Bowen’s form has seen him come up on Liverpool’s radar, with the England hopeful likely to cost around £75million, as CaughtOffside recently reported.
Arsenal might feel they’d do better to sign a more traditional centre-forward, but the list of realistic options out there isn’t particularly long, with many of them like Darwin Nunez, Jonathan David and Lautaro Martinez unproven in the Premier League and likely to be more expensive than Bowen.
Arsenal could be a great fit for Bowen, however, with Mikel Arteta likely to find room for him to shine in his front three, whether it’s as a false-nine, or as a goal threat from out wide like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was, and like Bukayo Saka has been, and like Nicolas Pepe was supposed to be.
A lot will surely depend on how the season ends for Arsenal, with Bowen likely to want to feel he’s making a genuine step up from West Ham, which could mean he’d favour someone like Liverpool if they showed a strong interest.
There’s no doubt, however, that the Gunners are a big name who could boost Bowen’s hopes of breaking into Gareth Southgate’s squad, and the timing couldn’t be better as it’s a World Cup year.
All in all, this seems like a smart deal that could benefit most of the parties involved, so perhaps it’s a potential saga to keep an eye out for in the weeks and months ahead.