Jarrod Bowen would be a realistic and extremely good signing for us.
1. He fits the profile of players that Solskjaer likes to sign. Another young talented British player like James and Wan-Bissaka.
2. He should be attainable. He's a PL level player playing at a club who are going nowhere in the Championship. If he doesn't sign a new deal by January his contract will have only 18 months left and their manager is already talking about his future being somewhere else. Last month McCann said "I don’t think the club would ever stand in Jarrod’s way if a bigger club came in with the right value that the club want."
3. His best position is our weakest. He's a left footed right winger.
4. We need goalscorers. His best quality is goal scoring. He established himself in the Hull team aged 20 in the 17/18 season and scored 15 in 44 games. Last season he went up to 22 in 46. This season he already has 5 in 12. So he's still young and improving but is already producing very good numbers in a poor team. Hull were 18th in his first season, 13th last year and are currently 16th.
5. A good example of the gap in quality between this player and his team is that in each of the last two seasons he has finished top scorer and won both their supporters and players POTY awards. He was also in the Championship team of the season last year. If you compare him to our own James then when they were both playing at the same level Bowen was showing himself to be the better player by far. And James has already shown himself to be one our better attackers!
6. He isn't just a goal scorer. When you watch him play the first thing you notice about him is actually his work rate. He presses and tracks back extremely well. If you compare him to players he would be competing against for a place in our team only Pereira makes more tackles and nobody makes as many interceptions. Work rate is a quality that Solskjaer has repeatedly talked about wanting in new players and for us as a team and Bowen has it in spades.
7. While goals and work rate are his biggest strengths he has other qualities. He has decent pace and skill, not elite but certainly better than what we have been used to from Pereira, Lingard and Mata over the last couple of years. His biggest weakness is probably his passing. He is decently creative but no better than that and he does lose the ball to much. If he was older this would be a real concern but at 22 there's no reason he cannot improve in this regard.
Now I know everyone wants Sancho for the right, I want him too! But that's an unrealistic transfer even with if we finish the rest of the season strongly. Which we won't do with Pereira as our starting right winger. Bowen is obtainable in January and would give us an immediate boost to our weakest position and add goals to a team which seems to lack a single finisher apart from Martial. Plus he fits perfectly with the principles by which Solskjaer is attempting to rebuild us. Overall in terms of talent, suitability for United and ease of acquisition I am struggling to think of a more obviously good AND realistic signing for us.
1. He fits the profile of players that Solskjaer likes to sign. Another young talented British player like James and Wan-Bissaka.
2. He should be attainable. He's a PL level player playing at a club who are going nowhere in the Championship. If he doesn't sign a new deal by January his contract will have only 18 months left and their manager is already talking about his future being somewhere else. Last month McCann said "I don’t think the club would ever stand in Jarrod’s way if a bigger club came in with the right value that the club want."
3. His best position is our weakest. He's a left footed right winger.
4. We need goalscorers. His best quality is goal scoring. He established himself in the Hull team aged 20 in the 17/18 season and scored 15 in 44 games. Last season he went up to 22 in 46. This season he already has 5 in 12. So he's still young and improving but is already producing very good numbers in a poor team. Hull were 18th in his first season, 13th last year and are currently 16th.
5. A good example of the gap in quality between this player and his team is that in each of the last two seasons he has finished top scorer and won both their supporters and players POTY awards. He was also in the Championship team of the season last year. If you compare him to our own James then when they were both playing at the same level Bowen was showing himself to be the better player by far. And James has already shown himself to be one our better attackers!
6. He isn't just a goal scorer. When you watch him play the first thing you notice about him is actually his work rate. He presses and tracks back extremely well. If you compare him to players he would be competing against for a place in our team only Pereira makes more tackles and nobody makes as many interceptions. Work rate is a quality that Solskjaer has repeatedly talked about wanting in new players and for us as a team and Bowen has it in spades.
7. While goals and work rate are his biggest strengths he has other qualities. He has decent pace and skill, not elite but certainly better than what we have been used to from Pereira, Lingard and Mata over the last couple of years. His biggest weakness is probably his passing. He is decently creative but no better than that and he does lose the ball to much. If he was older this would be a real concern but at 22 there's no reason he cannot improve in this regard.
Now I know everyone wants Sancho for the right, I want him too! But that's an unrealistic transfer even with if we finish the rest of the season strongly. Which we won't do with Pereira as our starting right winger. Bowen is obtainable in January and would give us an immediate boost to our weakest position and add goals to a team which seems to lack a single finisher apart from Martial. Plus he fits perfectly with the principles by which Solskjaer is attempting to rebuild us. Overall in terms of talent, suitability for United and ease of acquisition I am struggling to think of a more obviously good AND realistic signing for us.
