Last season wasn’t only a good season for West Ham United but also for the defensive duo of Winston Reid and James Collins. But with every positive comes a negative and with the consistently good form of Reid and Collins this made it increasingly difficult for James Tomkins to establish himself in the first team. Now the question is do we tamper with it for next season?
With Winston Reid’s brilliant form (and the fact that he picked up the ‘Hammer of the Year’ award) it would seem illogical to think about leaving him out of the squad for next season, so this brings me to James Collins.
Initially, Collins form wasn’t the best and he seemed to struggle at times making costly errors against Swansea City and Reading. Although you cannot fault his dedication and reliability for the most part, not to mention the fact that he saved us on many occasions.
With speculation growing that James Tomkins could be subject of a bid from Premier League rivals Newcastle United, is it possible that academy graduate Tomkins could be seen as surplus to requirements for the coming season? It would also seem that we have a growing interest in holding midfield/central defensive Ludovic Sane and Barcelona youngster Marc Bartra.
I, for one, would like James T to stay at Upton Park for the foreseeable future, as he has the potential to be a top class international defender and at the young age of 24 he has many years still ahead of him. Last year he broke into the Great British Olympic football team, and although that could be seen as a good thing it hindered his club career something the player admitted himself. Tomkins form wasn’t the best at times but once he settled down he didn’t do too badly so his West Ham career is far from over and hopefully some rotation over the upcoming season will give James T his chance!
Now with that being said I’m a big believer of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ and this is exactly the case.
Will rotation do more harm than good for the competent defensive partnership of Reid and Collins and with new personnel being touted could it prove too difficult for James Tomkins to really establish himself back as a regular West Ham player?
I think if we have a good pre season i believe it will be tomkins and reid starting for us
James Tomkins has a massive future ahead of him his time will come,but for now we have got to stick with Collins alongside Reid.IMO Reid improved so much with the benefit of playing with Collins
I don’t necessarily see James being a top class international defender, imo he hasn’t really progressed in the last couple of years! As stated collins and Reid are the favoured partnership through merit and other than cup competitions you can’t rotate cb’s, we would be asking for trouble if we did that. James did have his chance when ginge was injured last year but he didn’t take!
We won’t sell him, david gold has already stated this, but I do think some of our fans see the performances of our academy players through rise tinted glasses! He can be the player we want him to be but it’s no certainty that he will reach that level. There are already better younger centre backs currently plying their trade in the premier league; smalling, jones and caulker to name a few examples!
want to sign defoe and ba next,and a top playmaker
i think the order will remain the same. Collins has a bad rep but he was a rock last season. A few frustrating foul ups but %wise he was very dependable.
…. Competition for places in the PL is tough and in a squad system there are no guarantees about how many starts Tomkins will get. I think we need will another strong CB in the squad to increase competition even further.
1 injury at CB last season and we started to look vulnerable.
Stupid blog! James Tomkins is a West Ham player, west Ham through and through and young enough to be the future of the club for many a year! Nuff said! You don’t get to become one of the biggest teams in the prem by selling your best young talent! End off! Anyone with half a brain knows this! Apart from anything else, the Toon couldn’t afford a player like young tonks even if they wanted to! Like I said at the beginning, stupid blog! Instead of making up shite your time could be better served by getting behind the team! COYI!
Collins has to be a mainstay for me – I was at Anfield and saw an absolutely outstanding defensive display – he had Suarez in his pocket. There will be plenty of games for all three central defenders when you take injuries and suspensions into consideration!
Tompkins is half the player Reid was last year and at the same age I think people need to stop kidding to themselves about Tomkins being a future england player or even captain, his positioning is awfull and that’s what makes the stars stand out from the average you lot need to stop reading about Tomkins and watch him every game