Newcastle United ‘line up’ bold move for top-class Premier League star with 119 career goals

Newcastle United are expected to once again revive their interest in West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen in the January transfer window.

TeamTalk understands that Magpies boss Eddie Howe is a huge fan of the 12-time England international, who has been on the club’s radar since the days of Steve Bruce.

Bruce gave Bowen his first major breakthrough when he brought him to Hull City from Non-League Hereford in 2014 - and claims he came agonisingly close to a reunion with the forward during his time at St James’ Park before the Hammers clinched the £18m deal in January 2020.

In a damning indictment of the state of affairs at the club under Mike Ashley’s ownership, Bruce said: “I had him (Bowen) parked in the service station on the M1 waiting to see if we had 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.”

Bowen said at the time that he was hugely disappointed not to join Newcastle and claimed he only became aware of West Ham’s interest in the final moments of that window.

In an interview with Copa 90, he said: “It was £14m with £6m in add-ons and one of those was for an England call-up, and I thought that would never happen. I went to training and thought I was staying at Hull, but the manager pulled me and said ‘what are you doing here, we’ve accepted a bid from West Ham.’ I didn’t even know they were interested.”

Since moving to West Ham, Bowen has established himself as a club legend and is currently their third highest scorer in the Premier League era with 46 goals - just one short of the total amount achieved by Paulo Di Canio and one-club man Mark Noble. The right-sided winger has also made 33 assists in this period, making him the third most creative player in the club’s Premier League history behind Mark Noble with 40.

The 28-year-old also wrote himself into the club’s history books by scoring the winning goal against Fiorentina in the 2023 Europa Conference League final, marking the club’s first piece of silverware since their FA Cup triumph in 1980. Bowen enjoyed his best individual season to date last term with 16 Premier League goals - a figure that dwarfs the combined tally of six that Miguel Almiron and Jacob Murphy managed between them on the right-hand side last season.

TeamTalk understands that Newcastle see Bowen as the ideal player to help the club in their mission to once again secure Champions League qualification. 

Telegraph Sport reporter Luke Edwards also previously said in the summer that the winger had ‘featured prominently’ in recruitment discussions. However, getting the Bowen deal over the line is likely to be a tough task for Newcastle due to the attackers increasingly important role in the West Ham team.

Bowen is currently under contract until 2030 at the London Stadium and has recently been appointed Hammers club captain by the team’s new head coach Julen Lopetegui.