Jarrod Bowen posted a tweet back in 2012 that had racist connotations and it resurfaced a couple of days ago. The West Ham ace now has to react in the correct manner if he is to put it past him.
Read also: £25m ace’s West Ham spell could be short-lived unless David Moyes changes tack asap
The 24-year-old winger has already released an extensive apology for his tweet.
And that’s great.
He was 15 at the time. That has to be taken into account. We all make stupid mistakes when we are young but there is absolutely no excuse for the language used by Bowen in the 2012 tweet.
The fact that we have all acknowledged it and condemned it is a sign of real progress.
Racism in football is very real, as it is in society as a whole. There is no place for it and the way we react to these incidents, no matter how small, is a barometer of how much progress we are actually making.
The onus should now be on the FA and the Premier League, however. There are far more pressing racial issues in football than a nine-year old tweet from a young boy.
The powers that be need to start punishing people for racist acts now. They can no longer pussyfoot around the issue by taking meaningless, idle stands when the real culprits are escaping from punishment Scot-free.
Jarrod Bowen made a mistake when he was a teenager but let’s not continue to beat him over the head. What’s done is done and it is his reaction that matters the most now.
Jarrod Bowen tweet deflecting from poor form?
The West Ham United attacker now has to prove that he has what it takes on the pitch.
The storm created by the nine-year old tweet has deflected from the former Hull ace’s poor form of late.
He did score against Arsenal last weekend, but his overall performances have been average at best.
Bowen seems to hug the right touchline far too much. When the 24-year-old first moved to the London Stadium, he made those run from out to in, just like the one where he scored his first goal for the Hammers against Southampton in February 2020.
The West Ham ace just doesn’t seem to do that anymore. The onus should be on David Moyes to get the best out of him.
But Bowen needs to understand where he’s been going wrong as well.
Much like he did with the tweet he posted back in 2012.
As long as he learns from it and becomes a better person, that is all we can expect.
Hopefully Bowen learns from his recent mistakes on the football pitch as well.
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