‘Push For The Top Six Or Clear Off, Lads!'

BIG INTERVIEW: GRANT McCANN

- Chris Dunlavy

GRANT McCann has hailed under-fire chairman Assem Allam for refusing to cash in on Hull City wing wizard Jarrod Bowen.

Bowen, 22, has netted 40 goals in 94 Championship starts for the Tigers and was linked with every- one from Arsenal to Spurs during the summer.

But despite several rounds of tentative talks and informal offers, nobody met Hull’s £15m valuation of a player who is under contract until 2021.

In the end, Bowen was the only one of the division’s nine leading scorers not to start the 2019-20 campaign in the Premier League - and the topflight’s loss has proved Hull’s gain with the wide man already five goals to the good.

“To be fair, we were as surprised as anyone else to see Jarrod here in September,” said McCann, who left Doncaster to take charge at Hull after Nigel Adkins resigned in May.

Ambitious

“He’s had two big years here.In the first year, he got 14 or 15 goals. He proved it wasn’t a one-off by getting 22 in the second. This season, he’s started exactly the same way. He’s a real talent and one of the best – if not the best – wide players in the Championship.

“But fair play to the owner. He didn’t put me or Jarrod under any pressure. It was never a case of ‘We’re going to sell you’, or ‘You need to be gone’. He was happy for Jarrod to be here and it was the same with (Polish international winger) Kamil Grosicki.

“Thankfully, Jarrod’s the type of lad who is calm and collected. He comes in, he trains the same way every day and he doesn’t worry about speculation. I think you can see that clearly in his performances.”

Even with Bowen in the side, plenty of summer predictions saw Hull pegged for a season of struggle.