Jarrod Bowen: Liverpool's No-Risk Solution After Salah
The ink on Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool story is barely dry, but the debate over his successor is already raging. One name keeps coming back: Jarrod Bowen.
For Danny Murphy, there’s nothing tentative about it. In his view, Liverpool have a ready-made solution staring them in the face – and at a bargain price.
Bowen after the fall
West Ham’s relegation after 14 seasons in the Premier League has shaken the market. Their captain, Bowen, leaves the top flight with numbers that usually earn a new contract, not a drop into the Championship: nine goals and 11 assists in 38 league games.
He is 29, under contract for another four years, and still likely to move on. A player of that output and profile does not usually hang around in the second tier.
Liverpool, now bracing for Salah’s exit on a free transfer this summer, sit squarely in the conversation.
‘I wouldn’t be disappointed seeing him at Liverpool’
Speaking on talkSPORT’s Kick Off, former Liverpool midfielder Murphy made his stance clear when asked by Natalie Sawyer about Bowen as a potential replacement.
“I wouldn’t be disappointed seeing him at Liverpool,” he said. “I think he’s got goals in him. He’s got assists in him, he’s durable. I think he’s good enough.”
Murphy knows Liverpool’s recruitment model as well as anyone. Younger players, resale value, upside. Bowen doesn’t tick those boxes.
“There’s a criteria generally that Liverpool stick to, more or less, when they sign players, and he doesn’t really fit in that in terms of age, potential profit and all those types of things,” Murphy admitted.
Then he twisted the argument. That might be exactly why this one makes sense.
Value over vision
Liverpool, like every elite club, know what the going rate is for a top right-sided forward.
“You’re going to have to pay for a top quality player on that right hand side,” Murphy said. “You’re going to have to pay £50m to £80m, aren’t you.”
Bowen’s situation changes the maths. Relegation bites hard.
“With him going down to the Championship, I reckon you’d be looking at maybe £20m, £30m at most,” Murphy suggested. “But let’s say it was £20m because he’s desperate to get out and then get him off the wage bill, then it’s no risk.”
No risk. For a proven Premier League attacker, in his prime, used to carrying a team’s attacking burden. That’s Murphy’s pitch.
He doesn’t pretend Bowen is Salah. Nobody is.
“He’s not going to get Salah’s numbers, they’re just ridiculous, but tried and tested every year in the Premier League.”
The weight of No.11
Even the shirt number has become part of the conversation. Salah’s No.11 is not just fabric; it’s a symbol. It carries 257 goals in 442 Liverpool appearances, four Premier League Golden Boots and a place as the fourth-highest scorer in Premier League history with 193 goals.
Would Bowen be handed that shirt?
“I wouldn’t put that on him,” Murphy said. “If he wanted it, I’d give it to him, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about that.”
The message is clear: don’t ask Bowen to be Salah. Ask him to be reliable, productive, and available. Liverpool can build the rest.
Murphy stressed he is not arguing against superstar ambition.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting Liverpool shouldn’t be going for top stars,” he said, even floating the idea of going all out for a player of Kvicha Kvaratskhelia’s stature if the opportunity arose.
But in a summer when Liverpool’s to-do list is long, he sees Bowen as one big headache removed at a fraction of the usual cost.
Slot’s rebuild and the wider picture
Arne Slot walks into Anfield with a fifth-place finish behind him and a squad in need of a refresh. Salah’s departure rips out a pillar of Liverpool’s modern era. Replacing that output is not a one-player job.
The plan, as it stands, points towards numbers and versatility. Liverpool are expected to bring in either two wingers or a combination of one wide forward and a more flexible attacker who can move across the front line.
Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig has emerged as a leading target. The Ivorian winger is seen as a strong stylistic fit to take on Salah’s role, but Leipzig’s valuation – around £86m – shows exactly what that calibre of player costs. Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United are circling too, which only inflates the stakes.
Bradley Barcola and Anthony Gordon are also on Liverpool’s radar, names that fit the club’s usual age and profile model more naturally than Bowen.
That is the crossroads: pay elite money for a potential star, or move swiftly for a proven Premier League performer whose club has just fallen through the trapdoor.
A different kind of Liverpool signing?
For years, Liverpool have been the poster club for data-led, age-profiled, value-protecting recruitment. Bowen would be a step away from that template.
Murphy’s argument is that sometimes football is simpler. You lose a legend, you replace the minutes, the goals, the running, not the aura. You spread the burden and you buy certainty where you can.
If West Ham do cash in and the fee really does sit closer to £20m than £30m, Liverpool will have to decide what they value most this summer: the perfect long-term profile, or a “no risk” guarantee on the right flank while Slot reshapes everything around it.
