No one can replace Declan Rice at West Ham, but Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse are a wonderful fit.
Jarrod Bowen was “gutted” by Declan Rice’s departure from West Ham, but believes the additions of James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez have already proven fruitful.
The £105 million received from the sale of former captain Rice was reinvested in deals for Ward-Prowse, Alvarez, Konstantinos Mavropanos, and Mohammed Kudus as the club won three of their first four games.
Back-to-back defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool have slowed their progress, but Bowen believes David Moyes’ investment was wise from the start.
Bowen said of Rice on Rio Ferdinand’s VIBE with FIVE: “I was gutted, but it was always the saga every window: ‘was Dec going, was Dec not going?'”
“It’s impossible to replace Dec; you see what he does for England, what he does for Arsenal; his quality speaks for itself, and he’s shown even more people what he’s capable of.”
“But we’ve always bought the right people for the dressing room… the manager is very strict on that culture in the dressing room to get the best results.”
“With Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse, who we’ve brought in, it looks like they’ve been there for five years, and everyone has made them feel so welcome.” It’s an easy club to join, which is why they’ve gotten off to a fast start.”
Ward-Prowse has two goals and three assists in five games for West Ham, and Alvarez made his objectives clear during his first training session with the team.
“People probably think he’s only good at set-pieces,” Bowen continued, “but you see his quality in games and how he affects games.”
“I thought to myself during Edson’s first training session, ‘this guy just wants to smash everyone.'” He was just racing about clamping everyone in sight, and we thought to ourselves, ‘this is what he needs, we need a bit of fight in the middle,’ especially after losing Dec.
“We had to invest wisely in life without Dec because we knew the quality of player we were losing.” It’s tough to identify a direct replacement for Dec because I don’t see many people who are better than him at what he does. We’ve made a good start, and the new players have contributed significantly to the team’s success.”
“The only person on a par with Dec is Rodri,” he added. You also have Casemiro at United, who has won everything with Real Madrid and has performed well at United.
“Dec has a little bit of everything.” He can hold, but he can also get into the box and travel with the ball.”
