Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports, former Premier League defender with both West Ham United and Aston Villa James Collins has given his thoughts on whether Jarrod Bowen could earn a starting spot for England at next summers World Cup or whether he could end up backing up Harry Kane.
Collins signals out rising West Ham United midfielder Freddie Potts for particular praise and provides a detailed insight into Lucas Paqueta's performances and explains why the next few games for The Hammers,
Elsewhere, the former centre-back Aston Villa's attacking options with a focus on the respective forms of Ollie Watkins and Jadon Sancho.
Jarrod Bowen
Can Bowen Earn England Starting Spot?
Playing for England is tough, there's no doubt about it. I think you look at Jarrod's numbers over the last couple of years and, certainly, in a team that struggled a little bit at times, Jarrod’s numbers have always been top drawer. I like to see from international managers, if you're playing well for your club, you get your chance, irrelevant of the other names about. If you're playing well for your club and you're around the England team, you deserve a chance, and there's no doubt about it.
Jarrod has done that; he's almost carried West Ham at times, certainly in recent months and in the last couple of seasons. He's a great lad, a great player. I know how much it means to him to play for England. If he gets his chance, he'll do well and he'll thrive in that England shirt, I'm sure.
Backing-Up Kane?
I think he’s probably a little bit different if I'm honest. I know he's played through the middle, number nine, if you like, for West Ham a couple of times, and I feel like it sort of took a little bit away from his game, if I'm honest. I like to see him in one of the higher positions out wide, coming in onto his left foot and doing his stuff. But I know Jarrod as well, put him in goal and he'll have a go, he's a great lad.
He'd do a job, but myself I'd like to see him in one of the wide positions, more how he plays for West Ham, sort of making things happen, getting on the ball, and obviously chipping in with a lot of goals as well. Wherever you play him, he's a tremendous player and will do a job. But certainly for me, I could see him in one of the wider positions.”
Freddie Potts
Freddie Potts
I know his family well, I know his dad. The name Potts at West Ham is huge. There is the dreaded question of everyone comparing him to Mark Noble at the minute, but he's a good lad. The last two games, obviously, we've won both games as well: he's been tremendous. He's got that Mark Noble feel. You don’t really want to mention them together, but he has got that feel. He knows what it is. He's a West Ham fan. He knows what it is to play for the football club.
And when you play for West Ham, certainly myself, they want to see the effort, they want to see the boys making the tackles and doing the hard yards, if you like. And he can do that. And I think certainly the last two games, he's been tremendous. He has a good head on his shoulders, a good family around him that won't let him get above his station, if you like. Do his work, play on a Saturday. And like I said, the last two games he's been really, really good, and there's no coincidence that we've got the two wins since he's played.
I really think with the right people around him, which he has got with the family, and I'm sure Mark Noble is probably involved there somewhere speaking to him, he can go on and be a tremendous, you know, a really, really, really good player for West Ham.”
Lucas Paqueta
Lucas Paqueta
Lucas Paqueta is such an important player when he's playing well, so links are inevitable, but we'd love to see him tied down. That's just football, I guess. When you're such a good player, there are always going to be teams interested. Man City has been mentioned, and so on. There's no doubt that when he's on form, he is a top, top player. He has that Brazilian flair, but he also works hard. He does his defensive work, too. We want to see players like that at West Ham. Even when I was playing, we always had that.
I don't want to call him a maverick, but he's that flair player. Looking back at my time, it's players like Yossi Benayoun, Carlos Tevez, Paolo Di Canio, those sorts of names. I'd put Paqueta in that category. If he can stay at West Ham, and I don't think I'm being too harsh, I don't think he's been at his absolute best, certainly not at the start of the season. You could say that about all the West Ham players. But certainly, when he's on his day, and things are going right, he's a joy to watch, and he'd be a player that West Ham, I'm sure, would love to keep hold of.
When you're that good, clubs are going to be sniffing around. There's no doubt about it. But I think he's talking the right way; he wants to show a bit of loyalty to the football club. It would be great to see him stay, but every player who does well will get linked away. Hopefully, we can keep hold of him. It's probably similar to Dimitri Payet. I think when Dimitri left, if he had stayed for another couple of years, he really could have become one of those legends, like Di Canio was at West Ham. I think Paqueta has that in him. If he stays and plays how we know he can, he could be a really big name at the club going forward. Yes, for sure.
West Ham United
"Massive" Next Games
Two games ago, it wasn't looking great. Speaking to a lot of West Ham fans, they couldn't really see where a win was coming from, nor a clean sheet. To be fair to Nuno Espirito Santo, the last two games have been much better and a lot more solid. We don't look like conceding as we did in recent months. The start of the season was a bit of a disaster on the pitch, no doubt about it. Any West Ham fan or anyone at the club would say the same. But the next two games are massive. Two wins in the last two games is huge when you are down there. You can really kick on. If they can stay around, like I said, get away from relegation and move towards mid-table, who knows, they could even go on a bit of a run and look at those later European spots. These two wins in the last two games have been huge, giving everyone a bit of hope.
Like I said, we look a lot more solid. I was really worried a few weeks ago, looking at the set-plays and the way we were conceding, it looked really easy to score against. That seems to have been shored up in the last couple of weeks. We're looking forward now, whereas before, certainly, myself, as a West Ham fan, we were thinking, 'Where's the win going to come from?' Now we've got it, it just breeds confidence in the squad. Look, it's still early days for the manager. He's still getting to know the players, and the players are still getting to know Nuno. I think in the coming weeks, we'll see some better performances and hopefully, we can go on a bit of a run where we can pick up points and certainly move away from the bottom half of the table.
So if we could get Harry in, with his experience and his quality and having been at a big club like Manchester United for so long, it would only benefit West Ham. So, you know, it might be a rumour, who knows, but if it's true, I'd love to have a go at him, that's for sure.
Aston Villa
Ollie Watkins
Ollie Watlins is a top, top goal scorer. I think Villa probably just haven’t made as many chances as he's had in the last couple of years. They certainly haven't. You look at the stats, you look at the figures, they're certainly not creating as much, certainly in the first part of the season, as they were. When you've got a goal scorer like Ollie Watkins, he's going to score goals. Every centre forward, every top centre forward, or every top player, they always go through spells where you don't score.
At the weekend, he'll probably score a hat-trick, and then you go on a run, you know, it's just one of those things. But certainly, as a whole, I just don't think Villa have created as many chances as they have in the past. Like I said, he's a top, top player and his quality will come out eventually, and there's no doubt about it, he'll score goals in any team he's in."
Jadon Sancho
I think for Jadon Sancho, it’ll probably be about someone taking a chance on him. It has been a struggle the last couple of years; there's no doubt about it, but we all know there's a player in there. If you can get the right manager, the right squad around a player like Jadon Sancho, you're going to get the best out of him eventually.
I think it's probably a club like Villa, or certainly the manager, taking a bit of a chance, or giving him an opportunity. When you're not playing well and it hasn't gone well for a couple of years, it's easy to get forgotten about and drop down and disappear. But he's too good a player for that. He needs someone to really get an arm around him and almost make him the main man.
I think if you get him back to playing how he was a couple of years back, he can be that main man. So I think it's just down to the manager really trusting him, really believing in him and giving him a chance. And I think at Villa, they can certainly do that.
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