'It hurts' - Emotional Jarrod Bowen makes blunt Leeds United win admission as relegation confirmed
Leeds United’s final-day hosts saw relegation confirmed.
West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen admits a 3-0 win over Leeds United is no consolation for being relegated.
Bowen and his Hammers teammates condemned Leeds to a first defeat in nine on Sunday, with all three goals coming in the second-half at the London Stadium. The forward scored between goals from Taty Castellanos and Callum Wilson but it meant little eventually.
Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 win at home to Everton ensured West Ham took up the final relegation place, joining Burnley and Wolves. And Bowen reflected on the disappointment after full-time.
"Not really [a consolation that West Ham did what they needed to] because we never wanted to be in this situation,” he told Match of the Day. "Coming into the game, we had to take care of ourselves and hold onto that bit of hope that we had.
“That's all we could do. We were relying on another result. Ultimately, it's not enough. Just hurt. I've been here six and a half years now. Had a lot of good moments and this outweighs all of it. Getting this club relegated... it hurts.
"We shouldn't be in the position we're in but we've found ourselves in it and we've not done enough to stay up. Hurt is the only thing."
Daniel Farke and Leeds had long eyed a point-per-game average as their goal for survival, but it wouldn't have been enough. West Ham’s win on Sunday took them to 39 points but they will be in the Championship next season regardless.
"We've had so many games when we could have got different results,” Bowen said. “You can look at it and say 'these, these, these, these' but, ultimately, we didn't pick the points up and in this league, the quality is so high and we didn't give ourselves enough of a chance.
"You can individualise every single game. You can't look back at every game but in some games we didn't show the levels consistently enough."
There will now be speculation over the future of Bowen and West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo. On his future, the West Ham captain added: "It's still very, very raw. Talking about futures is disrespectful to the club, the fans, everything like that. This club deserves to be in the Premier League. Our aim now is to get this club back into the Premier League.
"It's disrespectful to everyone to start talking about that. I want this club to be in the Premier League. It's a club that means so much to me and has given me so much so my vision is to get this club back in the Premier League."