Jude Bellingham said it all with his actions at full-time as West Ham star Jarrod Bowen outshone Gareth Southgate’s favourites.
There is no real love lost when it comes to how West Ham fans in particular feel about England boss Gareth Southgate.
It’s understandable and in many respects justified.
Southgate has consistently snubbed West Ham’s top performing players since becoming Three Lions boss.
A prime example being the fact James Ward-Prowse was a regular in the Three Lions squad until the moment he joined West Ham.
That was despite playing in Europe and making a brilliant start to life in east London last season.
Southgate irksome for West Ham fans
Southgate antagonised the Hammers faithful by continually overlooking star man Jarrod Bowen in recent seasons.
And when he did get in the squad Southgate initially chose not to give him a proper chance.
Southgate also angered Hammers fans when he declared Declan Rice had taken his game to another level since leaving West Ham earlier this year.
In fairness to Southgate he did pick Bowen for his Euros squad. Rightly so given his brilliant form for West Ham again last season.
Many Hammers fans feel Bowen should be pushing Bukayo Saka for a start by rights.
But when Southgate did not even use Bowen in the defeat to Iceland – England’s final warm-up game for the Euros – West Ham fans feared it would be the same old story.
And so it proved as Southgate favourite Saka duly started on the right when the tournament proper got underway from the Three Lions against Serbia on Sunday night.
But Jude Bellingham says it all as West Ham star Bowen outshines Southgate’s favourites.
Bellingham says it all as Bowen outshines Southgate’s favourites
In fairness to Saka, the Arsenal man had an excellent first half and his deflected cross set up Real Madrid superstar Bellingham for the only goal of the game.
Saka and England were pretty awful in a typically drab affair once England had taken the lead.
It’s an all too common theme under Southgate and one West Ham fans recognise from their time under David Moyes.
When Conor Gallagher came on in the 69th minute it felt like a Moyes and Kalvin Phillips at Newcastle call.
Bowen does West Ham proud for England
Bowen was excellent and did not put a foot wrong during his 15 minutes on the pitch.
The Hammers star had 15 touches, made 6 passes, created one clear-cut chance which should have been an assist, won his only aerial duel, made a one tackle, one key clearance and one key interception.
Football data experts Squawka posted about West Ham’s ace:
“Jarrod Bowen created as many chances in his first minute on the pitch than any England player had in the opening 75 minutes.”
Bowen would also end the game as the only England player to create a big chance against Serbia.
But what said it all was what happened at the final whistle.
England had been under severe pressure for most of the second half and came close to conceding an equaliser.
It was only when Bowen came on that Southgate’s side were able to ease the pressure and start pinning the Serbs back with his positive play and excellent exchanges.
When the referee called for full-time Bellingham made a beeline for West Ham’s star man.
He gave him a bear hug which said it all – ‘you helped us get over the line’.
Game recognises game as they say.
Now let’s see whether Bowen gets the start he deserves against Denmark.
You can hear Bowen’s thoughts on England’s opening group game win in the video below.
