They say loyalty is dead in football but, if that really is the case, no one told West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen.
On Friday lunchtime, the Hammers faithful received with the news they have been longing for. After Bowen flew out to Prague for talks with Daniel Kretinsky, the skipper has opted to stay put and spearhead West Ham United’s pursuit of an immediate return to the Premier League.
In doing so, Bowen emulates Sir Trevor Brooking in 1978, Alvin Martin in 1989, and Mark Noble in 2011.
The captain STAYS! How big of a coup is this for West Ham? 🥳
A captain should always go down with their ship. While Mateus Fernandes leapt into the life raft, Jarrod Bowen has two hands firmly gripped upon the wheel, navigating a maze of icebergs, and hopefully heading for calmer waters.
West Ham United star Jarrod Bowen is not the only big name who stayed after relegation
Juventus’ Calciopoli quintet
If West Ham’s relegation out of the Premier League was caused by years of mis-management and a steady decline, news that Juventus had been booted into Serie B in 2006 sent shockwaves throughout world football.
The Bianconeri were stripped of their title and sent to the second tier after being found guilty of attempting to influence referees. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta wasted little time escaping via the back door.
In contrast, Alessandro del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon, Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet and Mauro Camoranesi would scribe their names into Juve folklore by remaining with the scandal-hit club. The Old Lady’s favourite sons standing by her hospital bed and nursing her back to health.
Juve bounced back at the first time of asking with Del Piero, Trezeguet and Nedved – a Ballon D’Or winner only three years previously – racking up 49 goals between them.
Stuart Pearce – Nottingham Forest
In the space of 48 hours, Jarrod Bowen was cut from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad before suffering relegation out of the Premier League. ‘In terms of a weekend,’ Bowen quipped with no shortage of gallows humour, ‘it probably couldn’t have gone any worse’.
What makes Bowen’s decision to stay all the more commendable is the fact that Championship football pretty much kills his hopes of a Three Lions recall stone dead. Fortunately for Stuart Pearce, who coached Bowen during a spell as David Moyes’ assistant, then-England boss Graham Taylor was willing to overlook Forest’s relegation in 1993 while keeping the City Ground skipper in his plans.
“I was captain of England at the time and got relegated with Nottingham Forest,” Pearce would later tell talkSPORT. “First thing I done was ring Graham Taylor and said: ‘If I drop down to the division below, will I still get the call-up for England?’
“If he would have said ‘no’, I would have put in a transfer request in that day.
“I didn’t want to leave Nottingham Forest. I loved the football club. But to lose my England place, whilst being captain as well, was never going to be negotiable.”
By the time ‘Psycho’ blasted that iconic penalty past Andoni Zubizarreta at Euro ’96, he had helped consolidate Forest back in the big time.
Jonas Hector – Koln
From one left-back to another, Hector’s story could hardly be much different from Pearce’s tale.
The captain of Cologne was Germany’s first-choice left-back at the 2018 World Cup. But after deciding to stay in the Cathedral City, turning down Bayern Munich in the process, Hector would, for all intents and purposes, consign himself to an early retirement from international football.
“Cologne allowed me to take the path from the regional league [fourth division] to the German national team,” Hector told the club’s website at the time. “I am very thankful to this club and feel very comfortable living in Cologne.
“It would have been no problem for me to switch to another club after this season, but it would not have felt right.”
Few players have sacrificed so much at the altar of loyalty.
Which Hammers players are you expecting to SHINE in the Championship? 🌟
Franco Baresi – AC Milan
Birmingham City’s decision to retire Jude Bellingham’s old number 22 shirt after only 44 appearances still attracts plenty of scorn.
Few could blame AC Milan, though, for concluding that no player could ever wear the now-vacant number six jersey with the same passion, quality and devotion as Franco Baresi.
Not only did Baresi stay in 1980 – after Milan were relegated due to the Totonero match-fixing scandal – he did the same in 1982.
Later going on to win four Serie A titles and three Champions Leagues, the footballing gods would reward Baresi with one of the greatest trophy cabinets in football history.
Gabriel Batistuta – Fiorentina
There can be no bigger compliment for a footballer than to see yourself immortalised in bronze outside of your old stomping ground. Who knows, maybe one day Jarrod Bowen will have a metal mannequin of his own somewhere in East London?
After remaining in Florence and ensuring that Fiorentina would spend only one year outside of the elite in 1993/94, Viola supporters erected a statue of Batistuta complete with his trademark corner flag celebration.
It was a celebration they became very accustomed to during a nine-year spell in which ‘Batigol’ earned one of football’s most fitting nicknames; scoring 204 times in 331 appearances.
“I received many offers, namely from Real Madrid, Manchester United and Milan. But I preferred the tranquillity of playing for Fiorentina,” Batistuta would explain to the America Business Forum:
“If I had gone to Madrid, I would have scored more than 200 goals, but I knew I would have got bored. The same thing would have happened to me at Milan.
“Although I have never won a major trophy, I consider myself a winner because I helped Fiorentina to compete with the big boys.”
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
