Transfer deadline day not only represents West Ham United’s last stab at improving Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad, it also brings about the anniversary of one of their finest signings of the Premier League era; Jarrod Bowen.

It is nearly six years exactly since the London Stadium skipper made the step up from the Championship with Hull City.

Now, while the old adage goes that there is relatively little value to be found in the January market – where ‘panic buys’ reign – West Ham United have enjoyed some very notable successes.

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Jarrod Bowen, of course, arrived in a £20 million deal from Humberside when he was still a fresh-faced 23-year-old. But Tomas Soucek also arrived at the London Stadium in the first few weeks of 2020, initially on loan from Slavia Prague.

Add in Jesse Lingard, Bobby Zamora, Lucas Neill, Matthew Upson, Dean Ashton, Demba Ba plus Wembley hero Ricardo Vaz Te, and there is an argument to be made that West Ham have made better use of the mid-season window than most over the last 20 years or so.

Jarrod Bowen opens up on his move from Hull City to West Ham United

Adama Traore became Nuno Espirito Santo’s fifth signing of the New Year when he arrived from Fulham this week. Taty Castellanos and Pablo Felipe have made a difference already, as Bowen himself pointed out after the 3-1 victory over Sunderland.

But it would take something very special indeed for Traore, Castellanos or Pablo to threaten Bowen’s status as the most-inspired January signing in West Ham’s history.

Reflecting on his £20 million transfer on the club’s official YouTube channel, Bowen recalls the iron-clad self-confidence which enabled him to make the transition to Premier League life look pretty straightforward.

“I always backed myself to be ready for the next challenge. I think when I was at Hull, I had two-and-a–half years of scoring double figures consistently,” says Bowen, who netted 53 times in 132 games from the start of 2017/18 until his sale in January 2020.

“So I always felt like I was ready for the next step. But that next step never came. It took two and a half years! But then something happens on deadline day.

“I always like a challenge and I try to answer as many challenges as I can in the right way, in a positive way. When I did get my opportunity, I just felt ready for it. I think I’m always ready to step up to the next thing.

“It was difficult coming in halfway through a season, of course. But I just wanted to take everything in my stride and hit the ground running.

“My mindset is always just to break down barriers and prove the next person wrong. It’s never really thinking about what could go wrong; it’s always trying to write your name into history and write your own future.”

Bowen was welcomed warmly by Mark Noble and Declan Rice

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Bowen scored on his first West Ham start, in a 3-1 victory over Southampton. It was during his first full campaign under David Moyes, though, when he really started to find the form that would make him the second-highest goalscorer in the club’s Premier League history.

“Obviously, I probably look a little bit different! Probably got a bit of a beard and stuff. But in terms of playing, I think fans might agree, I try and play the same way [as always],” adds Bowen, who will captain his team at Stamford Bridge in Saturday’s 5.30 kick-off against Chelsea.

“I’m always that industrious, robust, hardworking player, and I think I’ve never lost that. If you’ve got something like that inside you, you always have it.

“Obviously, you improve on technical things but, in terms of what I am mainly as a player, I think I’ve been a similar sort of player from when I joined to now.”

Bowen was handed the captain’s armband in 2024 following the departure of Declan Rice to Arsenal. He remembers striking up an immediate relationship with another up-and-coming star. Mark Noble, a man very much at the other end of his career, also played a key role in Bowen’s adaptation.

“‘Nobes’ was the first I had a conversation with. I’d signed just before the Brighton game [a 3-3 draw in February 2020]. I spoke to him in the changing room before,” Bowen says.

“He was talking to me about how, if I ever need anything or need help with where I’m going to live, he was there, which was really nice of him.

“‘Snods’ [Robert Snodgrass], I obviously knew from Hull, and he was down here. Dec, I didn’t know. But I knew Dec was the big star, the rising person. I was young and he was even younger, and I felt like we had that kind of connection straight away.

“There were a few big names here that really took me under their wing and helped me straight away.”