Just hours before the woeful defeat to Brentford Jarrod Bowen made a bold claim about West Ham that now looks completely delusional.
What was meant to be an emphatic prediction and backing for the manager has instead aged horribly, laying bare just how far the Hammers have now fallen.
West Ham’s performance in the 2-0 defeat to Brentford has been labelled the worst of any team in the Premier League this season.
The likes of Jamie Carragher and Jamie O’Hara have gone even further than that.
Carragher says this current West Ham side are one of the worst teams he has ever seen in the history of the Premier League.
West Ham labelled worst in the Premier League
O’Hara labelled the Hammers ‘disgusting’ against Brentford and says they are sleepwalking to relegation.
The fall of West Ham is made all the more shocking by the heights from – and speed at – which it has happened.
On December 28th 2023, West Ham beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates to go sixth in the table midway through the campaign.
The Irons were just one win off the top four after that game heading into the new year.
West Ham were on their way to another European quarter-final as they brought up three consecutive seasons of continental football for the first time in the club’s history.
Since the turn of the year into 2024, though, the Hammers have fallen off a cliff.
West Ham have won just 17 of their 66 Premier League matches between then and the latest defeat to Brentford.
The fall from that cliff has been rapid and now West Ham are close to rock bottom.
So it makes something the club’s captain said ahead of the Brentford game seem even more bizarre.
In fact Jarrod Bowen’s West Ham claim on the eve of the Brentford debacle now looks delusional.
You have to feel for Bowen.
He has been carrying the team on his back for the last few years and, in the last two in particular, with very little help from any of his underperforming teammates.
Bowen’s West Ham claim now looks utterly delusional
As skipper Bowen has had to front up and try to explain away one car crash performance after another under Julen Lopetegui, Graham Potter and now Nuno Espirito Santo.
Having had a taste of Europe three seasons in a row, expectations have been raised in east London.
But while most fans have been living in the real world for quite some time, it seems the players need to join them if West Ham are to survive.
Clearly Bowen wants to be positive and lead by example. That is his job as captain.
However, something he said before the Brentford defeat suggests heads are still in the clouds when it comes to the penny dropping over the seriousness of the situation West Ham are in.
Because Bowen was rather ridiculously talking about West Ham still having ambitions of qualifying for Europe this season.
The Hammers hero stated he felt a couple of wins against Brentford and Leeds would see the team looking up at challenging for the European spots.
And he even said those doubting West Ham were capable of mounting a European challenge were wrong.
“If you look at the league table, we’re only a couple of results away and we play Monday and Friday this week, so it’s a really good time to put in some good performances and get some good results,” Bowen said in his column in West Ham’s programme.
Forget Europe, time to wake up and smell the relegation coffee
“Of course, we take things game by game, but we also know two or three good results and it looks a whole lot different…
“What he’s (Nuno) done, he’s had some really good success, most recently at Nottingham Forest, getting them into Europe, and that’s where we want to be.
“It might seem a million miles away to some people, but I really don’t think it is.
“A couple of results changes the mood, changes the dynamic, changes the energy and the feel, so we’re really excited to work with him.”
We all love Jarrod but this is almost laughable.
This team needs to wake up and smell the coffee before it is too late – starting at Leeds on Friday night.
