Jarrod Bowen admitted his “hurt” at West Ham’s relegation to the Championship this afternoon.
The Hammers beat Leeds 3-0 with Bowen among the goalscorers but it wasn’t enough as Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat of Everton condemned them to the drop.
West Ham played well on the day but Bowen said that was scant consolation as their 14-year stay in the top flight came to an end.
He told BBC Match of the Day: “Not really because we never wanted to be in this situation.
“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.”
This outweighs the good moments at West Ham – Bowen
Bowen has been a shining light throughout a dismal season for West Ham and he conceded it was painful to go down.
“I’ve been here six and a half years now,” he added. “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.
“We’ve had so many games when we could have got different results. 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.”
Bowen not interested in speculation
Bowen’s future will be a hot topic over the summer with several clubs no doubt attempting to keep him in the Premier League but the 29-year-old refused to discuss his next move.
He said: ”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.”