The West Ham United star ready to join Newcastle United in £14m transfer

West Ham United forward Jarrod Bowen almost joined Newcastle United three years ago.
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West Ham star Jarrod Bowen was ready to join Newcastle United in January 2020 - but former owner Mike Ashley refused to sanction the deal.

Steve Bruce, Newcastle’s head coach at the time, spotted Bowen playing for non-league side Hereford and signed him for Hull City in 2014.

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After netting 54 goals in 131 appearances for the Tigers, Bruce planned a reunion with the 26-year-old on Tyneside, but the Magpies refused to meet Hull’s asking price.

Bowen went from looking at houses in Newcastle to moving to London in the space of a few hours on deadline day.

The four-capped England international told the Premier League: “Deadline day, I had nothing. I thought I was going to Newcastle because Steve Bruce was there - I was looking for houses and everything, I thought it was nailed on!

“But they said ‘we’re not paying the money’. I was like ‘alright, I’ll just stay at Hull’. The fee was £14million with £6m add-ons. One of them was an England call up but I was like ‘that’ll never happen!’

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“I went to training as normal on deadline day and thought I was staying at Hull but I got there the manager said ‘what are you doing here? We’ve accepted a bid from West Ham’. I was like ‘what’. I didn’t even know there was interest.”

Speaking earlier this year, Bruce also told the story of how United missed out on Bowen.

“The big one I missed on at Newcastle was Jarrod Bowen who we’d actually signed at Hull from Hereford for about £50,000,” Bruce told the Die For Three Points podcast. “I watched him come through, great kid.

“I had him parked in the service station on the M1 waiting to see if we had the permission, to see if I could scramble the funds to make it happen but I couldn’t get the money together and he went to West Ham instead.”

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Bowen has enjoyed a successful three years with the Hammers, scoring 38 goals and providing 30 assists in 151 matches.

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