James Collins and Winston Reid have solidified a formidable partnership at the heart of West Ham’s defence, which is a pleasure to see for Hammers fans, who are all too familiar with shaky back-lines. This has, however, left James Tomkins out in the cold. Is Sam Allardyce taking a risk by reducing the young, talented centre-half to the role of bench-warmer?
As the obvious choice for this season’s Hammer of the Year award, Winston Reid’s place in Allardyce’s starting XI is as secure as the Kiwi makes Jussi Jaaskelainen feel when he lines up in front of the ‘keeper. That leaves just one place for Collins and Tomkins to scrap over.
Many view Tomkins, who turned 24 in March, as having a huge part to play in West Ham’s future. This was especially true at the end of last season, when the defender had enjoyed an excellent campaign as one half of a pair with Reid. The Basildon-born stopper was runner-up to last season’s Hammer of the Year, Mark Noble, and impressed so much that he was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Despite Reid and Tomkins doing excellently in the Championship, when West Ham gained promotion back to the Premier League last summer, one if the first things on Sam Allardyce’s mind was to reinforce his defence, hence the re-signing of James Collins from Aston Villa for £2.5m.
Having left the Hammers for Villa in September 2009, the return of ‘Ginge’ raised a few eyebrows around east London. After all, West Ham appeared to be in need of full-backs more than anything else and Collins’s powers were waning towards the end of his time at Villa Park. As such, few were surprised when he had a relatively poor start to life back at the Boleyn – he gave goals away against Swansea and Reading and seemed to be completely off of the pace at times. That said, Collins had shown flashes of the excellence he displayed for West Ham before the club decided to cash in and ship him off to Birmingham, and he is now performing consistently well for the Hammers, so much so that he would have to be one of the first names on the teamsheet for Big Sam.
Furthermore, it is worth remembering that Reid, like Tomkins, is also 24 years old, and he had only played one season in the Premier League before this one. Therefore, Collins, who will turn 30 in August and has played in the top flight for seven consecutive years, adds some much needed experience to a defence that is still fairly new to all this. Plus, Tomkins has been given chances to put his name on a starting place in the West Ham team, and has failed to outperform Reid and Collins, so it is only right that he is left out of the side.
Although West Ham do need to keep one eye on the future and make sure they do not lose touch with their history of putting faith in youthful talent, Sam Allardyce is safeguarding the Hammers’ future by playing his best side and providing stability today.
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I am a big fan of James Tomkins & yes I do share concerns with Sam’s attitude to youth sometimes! not sure what the answer is, how he sticks with someone like Taylor as a bench warmer is beyond me he is not even good enough for that!
Its not that complicated. Collins is the immediate solution while Tomkins is the future. Aside from a couple of brutal back passes, Collins has more than delivered. His shot blocking alone earns his place. Tomkins just has to be patient, and learn as much as he can from the veteran. His time will come.
Tomkins and Reid will make a fantastic long term first choice pairing, of that there is no doubt. Fair play to Collinns…even though there always seems to be a basic and horrible mistake just waiting to get out, the lad has blocked more shots this season than is good for his health and he is right up Allardyces street !!! James Tomkins is a class act, and is learning all the time, and Reid had surprised us all with the speed he has come to terms with the Permiership….from a coaching perspective though, I just wish they would stay on their feet a bit more !!
sorry but not a lover of sam he dont believe in youth our young guns will be leaving.
You need one of each and thats what we’ve got ! Collins is not the best but is a proper centre back and has enabled Reid to become the player he is , don’t think Reid is any better than Tomkins and if Tomkins had got the nod in front of Reid then he would have felt safer and played better with Collins next to him . But how long does he wanna sit on the bench and wait ???? The only way he will get that spot is if Reid gets injured and is out for a while . Collins is first on the list for cb .
I think every game tomkins has played at center back this season, hes played well, newcastle, swansea, liverpool we kept clean sheets with him in the team. The problem is hes been quite injury prone this season. Every time he starts to get a run of games he looks very good but BFS either then put him right back, center mid or he gets injured.
You have hit the nail on the head. Every time he has played a few games he either got moved to a different position Or got injured. He has been quite unlucky this season
Attention grabbing headlines are all well and good, but if there is little truth or substance then it’s a waste of a read and basically just another reason to have a go.
Now we are safe points wise, I think you’ll find youth will get a chance…..as it is the case for most Premiership teams. Unless of course Big Sam hasn’t been giving any of our young budding Lionel Messi’s in the development squad that I’m not aware of an earlier run out.
Our first choice centre halfs are there for a reason ie, that is the best partnership we have at the moment! For Tomkinsto get a game someone else has to miss out. So all in all a bit of a pointless piece! Nothing more than a cheap chance to have a go! Not very clever and totally not necessary! Like him or not Big Sam has delivered what he was hired for and given us something tht we haven’t had enough off these past years, STABILITY! With the exciting times coming our way Big Sam’s influence is needed more than ever!
Did you give up before the last two paragraphs, Phil? Because I pretty much said what you’ve repeated.
The point of the piece was to look at both sides of the argument and put forward an opinion to engage people in a debate, which I think I have achieved, so not exactly ‘pointless’.
You say stability, while I think Sam is a half decent manager how can we be sure that he is going to stick. This from a man who would not commit his future to a club we all love, until we had secured what he thought was safety. West ham has always been at the forefront of youth development, to remove this from our grass roots and not recognise its significance I feel is a major failing, to which I feel Sam needs to address.
Central defence is sorted. Get Ravel back to replace Nolan.
Collins has been one of the HOTY contenders, he has saved the day on so many occasions he has to be?
Ried and Tomkins are the furture, but Colline is in his prime.
There still needs to be another (4th) CB as the lst thing anyone wants to see is Pogatetz warming up????