David Moyes reckons Jamie Vardy is a fine example to Jarrod Bowen of where hard work and dedication can get you in football.
Like the Leicester striker, Bowen had to go the long way round to get to the top.
Vardy was at Fleetwood when the then-Championship Foxes paid £1million to sign him in.
But he scored just as freely up the divisions and fired the goals that eventually lifted them into the Premier League and, ultimately, to the 2015-16 title.
Bowen, who will play up front for West Ham against Leicester today with Michail Antonio injured, started out at Hereford before joining Hull, although he made just seven appearances in the top flight before they were relegated back to the Championship.
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So it wasn’t until he joined West Ham that Bowen really got his chance in the Premier League and, this season especially, he has proved he belongs there.
Now Moyes wants to make sure there’s no resting on his laurels and that Bowen rings every last drop out of his career, just as Vardy has done.
He said: “Jamie Vardy is a really good example of what you can do if you dedicate yourself and you don’t give up, you don’t let anybody put you down and keep going.
“That raw potential came from inside hunger, to take the chance when you get it.
“I wouldn’t say it’s proving people wrong but to prove to yourself you can compete and Jarrod is doing that.
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“The really big thing is that you can’t lose your hunger, you can’t ever think you’ve made it or can stop working at what you’re good at.
“The minute you stop, it finishes for you.
“But Jarrod is really hungry, he is at it.
“He’s still trying to establish himself in his first full season in the Premier League and you’d have to say he’s making a good go of it.”
Few would have predicted at the start of the season that this afternoon’s clash between West Ham and Leicester would be a Champions League six-pointer.
But that is the case with Moyes and Co loving life at the top end of the table.
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He added: “If you’re going to have success you need team spirit and we have great team spirit.
“At the training ground we’re having a lot of fun and we want that because it’s not easy to have that much fun nowadays.
“Obviously, we still have to work hard but we have good sections — the Band of Brothers (Declan Rice, Jesse Lingard and Pablo Fornals), as they’re calling themselves, we’ve got the Czeckies (Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal).
“I keep telling them we’ve signed the wrong ones because Slavia Prague keep doing well.
“They’re having a go back and we’re having a laugh about it.
“Arthur Masuaka, Said Benrahma and Issa Diop have a bit going on because they’re the French contingent.
“Obviously Mark Noble is a big key to all that happening.
“That all plays its part in trying to build a club with team spirit and long may it continue.”
