Liverpool Target Jarrod Bowen as Salah Successor

West Ham United’s fall through the Premier League trapdoor has thrown up an uncomfortable reality in east London and a tempting opportunity on Merseyside. Jarrod Bowen, the captain who fought until the end, now looks like a bargain waiting to be taken – and some at Liverpool believe Anfield should be first in the queue.

Former Reds midfielder Danny Murphy has nailed his colours to the mast. For him, Bowen isn’t a gamble. He’s the obvious, low-cost answer to the looming Mohamed Salah void.

Bowen emerges from West Ham’s wreckage

West Ham’s relegation after 14 consecutive seasons in the top flight has inevitably put their best players in the shop window. Bowen, 29, is the standout name.

Nine goals and 11 assists in 38 league games tell their own story. In a side that slid out of the division, he still produced. He still ran, still pressed, still carried the fight. That level of output, under that kind of strain, is exactly what has caught Liverpool eyes before – and it is doing so again.

He has four years left on his contract, but the drop into the Championship changes everything. A captain in his prime does not usually come cheap. Relegation changes the maths.

Murphy believes it transforms Bowen into a rare thing in the modern market: value.

On talkSPORT’s Kick Off, he made the case bluntly. He would “not be disappointed” to see Bowen walk into the Liverpool dressing room. Goals, assists, durability – the three qualities he kept circling back to. In Murphy’s view, Bowen ticks them all.

Breaking Liverpool’s transfer ‘rules’

Murphy knows Liverpool’s recruitment model as well as anyone on the outside. Young, resale value, upside. Bowen doesn’t fit that template. At 29, he is not a project. He is not a sell-on asset.

That, Murphy argued, is exactly why this might be the moment to bend the rules.

Liverpool, he said, normally pay a premium for that blend of age and potential. A top right-sided forward in Salah’s zone now costs between £50m and £80m. Everyone in Europe knows the Reds need one. Everyone prices accordingly.

Relegation shifts the dynamic. Murphy suggested Bowen could be prised away for around £20m–£30m, and even floated the idea of a deal closer to the lower end if the player pushes to leave and West Ham look to clear his wages. At that point, he called it “no risk”.

A proven Premier League attacker, still in his prime years, for a fraction of the going rate. For a club juggling multiple priorities this summer, that kind of deal carries its own logic.

The Salah shadow

No one at Liverpool pretends replacing Salah is a like-for-like exercise. The numbers are absurd.

257 goals in 442 games. Four Premier League Golden Boots. Fourth on the all-time Premier League scoring list with 193. Nine seasons of relentless production from the right.

Murphy didn’t try to sell Bowen as the man to match those returns. “He’s not going to get Salah’s numbers, they’re just ridiculous,” he admitted. The point was different: Bowen is “tried and tested every year in the Premier League”. Drop him into a strong side, give him structure and quality around him, and you know what you’re getting.

Even the symbolism of Salah’s No.11 shirt came up. Murphy wouldn’t load that weight onto Bowen from day one. If the winger wanted it, fine. If not, no problem. The message was clear – Liverpool’s priority should be substance, not sentiment.

Murphy also made space for the dream signing. If a genuine superstar such as Kvicha Kvaratskhelia ever became available and willing, Liverpool should go all out. But while the fantasy names dance around Europe’s rumour mill, Bowen, in his eyes, offers something more grounded: certainty at a sensible price, allowing the club to pour serious money into other areas.

Slot’s rebuild and the wider market

Arne Slot walks into Anfield with a long to-do list. A fifth-place finish has sharpened minds. Salah’s departure on a free only adds to the urgency.

Liverpool are expected to bring in at least one winger, possibly two – either a pair of wide forwards or one specialist for the flank and a more flexible attacker who can operate across the front line.

Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig is understood to be at the top of their attacking shortlist. The Ivorian international is seen as a strong stylistic fit for the right side, but Leipzig’s valuation, around £86m, is a different financial world to the Bowen conversation. Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United are also circling, pushing that price and pressure even higher.

Bradley Barcola and Anthony Gordon remain in the frame as well, both younger, both expensive, both in the bracket Liverpool have increasingly shopped in over recent years.

That is the backdrop to Murphy’s argument. Spend big on one marquee forward if the right one appears, yes. But lock in a reliable, relatively cheap, Premier League-hardened winger like Bowen, and a major headache disappears overnight.

Liverpool’s recruitment team will crunch the data, scour the market, and weigh every option. The choice they face is stark: chase the next superstar at a premium, or fold a proven Premier League captain into Slot’s first squad at a price that barely registers in today’s arms race.

If West Ham’s relegation really has opened the door to Bowen at £20m–£30m, how long can a club with Liverpool’s ambitions afford to leave it standing ajar?