Liverpool Urged to Sign Bowen as Salah Successor

Liverpool are being told the obvious by one of their own: if Jarrod Bowen is available at a cut price, don’t overthink it. Take him.

West Ham United’s relegation after 14 years in the Premier League has thrown one of the division’s most reliable wide forwards into an uncertain future. Bowen, the captain and heartbeat of the Hammers’ attack, posted nine goals and 11 assists in 38 league games. Strong numbers. Not enough to keep his club up. More than enough to keep him in the conversation at the top end of the table.

At 29 and with four years left on his contract, Bowen should be a long-term pillar in east London. Instead, he looks like a summer opportunity. Liverpool, bracing for life after Mohamed Salah, are right in the frame.

Murphy’s verdict: ‘no risk’

On talkSPORT’s Kick Off, former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy didn’t hesitate when asked by Natalie Sawyer whether Bowen would make sense at Anfield.

“I wouldn’t be disappointed seeing him at Liverpool,” he said. Simple as that.

Murphy pointed to what Liverpool managers have always demanded from their wide forwards: end product and reliability. Goals. Assists. Durability. Bowen ticks those boxes. He has done it for years in the Premier League, often carrying West Ham’s threat almost on his own.

“I think he’s good enough,” Murphy added. Not a prospect. Not a gamble. A known quantity.

There is, however, the question of profile. Liverpool’s recruitment model in recent years has leaned towards younger players, resale value, and the possibility of turning a good asset into a great one – both on the pitch and on the balance sheet. Bowen, approaching 30, doesn’t fit the template.

Murphy knows that. He just thinks this is the moment to bend the rules.

A bargain in a relegation fire sale?

The logic is cold but familiar. When a club goes down, its best players become targets. West Ham dropping into the Championship changes Bowen’s market dramatically.

“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.”

That’s the going rate for a prime, Champions League-level winger. Liverpool know it. Every club in Europe knows it.

But a relegated captain on Premier League wages is a different equation. Murphy believes the numbers could drop sharply.

“With him going down to the Championship, I reckon you’d be looking at maybe £20m, £30m at most,” he suggested. Push it further: “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. That’s the phrase that will echo around recruitment meetings. A proven Premier League wide forward, potentially for less than half the fee of a continental star who still has to adapt to England and the intensity of Anfield.

The Salah shadow

Any right-sided forward walking into Liverpool this summer steps into the longest shadow at the club.

Salah leaves on a free transfer after nine years of astonishing output: 257 goals in 442 appearances, four Premier League Golden Boots, and 193 league goals that place him fourth on the competition’s all-time scoring list. Those are not numbers. They are a monument.

Murphy is realistic about that.

“He’s not going to get Salah’s numbers, they’re just ridiculous,” he admitted. But Bowen is, as he put it, “tried and tested every year in the Premier League.”

The shirt is another matter. Salah’s No.11 has become iconic. Handing it straight to his replacement would be a statement – and a burden.

“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 Bowen, and build the next attack around a broader cast.

Liverpool’s wider transfer picture

This is not a one-player summer for Liverpool. Fifth place last season has sharpened the urgency around Arne Slot’s first transfer window. The rebuild of the forward line is just one strand of a larger job.

With Salah leaving, Liverpool are expected to bring in either two wingers or one specialist wide forward plus a more versatile attacker who can operate across the front line. The plan is to spread the goals and creativity, not simply hand the keys to a single heir.

Ivorian international Yan Diomande has emerged as their leading target on the right, according to talkSPORT. The RB Leipzig winger fits the modern profile: explosive, high ceiling, and already on the radar of Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United. Leipzig’s valuation, though, is hefty – around £86m.

Diomande is seen as a strong stylistic fit to replace Salah, a player who can stretch defences and carry the ball at pace. That fee, however, would swallow a huge portion of Liverpool’s budget in one move.

Elsewhere on the list sit Bradley Barcola and Anthony Gordon, both capable of operating wide and offering different tactical options. Each would command serious money and serious negotiations.

Murphy, for his part, is not arguing against ambition. He namechecked Kvicha Kvaratskhelia as the kind of “top star” Liverpool should always be ready to chase if circumstances allow, even suggesting a move from PSG in the hypothetical scenario he has “won everything there” and fancies Anfield.

But his core point remains: Liverpool have “so many other areas of the pitch to concentrate on, so much business to be done,” that landing a proven, cut-price Premier League winger like Bowen could quietly solve one big problem.

A new right side, a new era

The question for Liverpool is not whether Bowen is good enough. His Premier League record answers that. The question is how they balance a marquee signing, a long-term project, and a squad that needs depth as much as stardust.

Do they gamble close to £90m on Diomande as the centrepiece of Slot’s first attack? Do they spread the funds, bring in a flexible forward like Gordon, and still have room for a “no risk” Bowen to steady the right flank?

Or do they decide that replacing Salah is not a one-man job at all, but a collective rebuild in which Bowen becomes the dependable constant while others provide the fireworks?

Liverpool have lived with certainty on that right side for nearly a decade. This summer, they must decide whether security at a bargain price is worth more than another roll of the dice at the top end of the market.