Noble regrets pal Tomkins departure

Mark Noble will come face to face with the guy with whom he graduated through the Hammers academy this afternoon.

And he believes that in James Tomkins the Hammers lost a player who should never have been allowed to depart from the club.

Noble and Tomkins have always been big buddies and were the last two academy products to develop through the club before the current exciting crop of youngsters.

And the issues that followed the central defender’s exit from the club suggested that former boss Saven Bilic had got it all wrong for allowing the 29 year old to leave.

This season has seen the club find a central defensive partnership which looks sound but one wonders whether – given that he has become a stalwart at Palace – whether the 29 year old might not have been battling for a position should he have stayed.

Noble certainly thinks Bilic may have been hasty in sanctioning the £10 million departure after Tomkins became unhappy with his game time and Bilic claimed he wanted to leave..

Speaking in his Evening Standard column Noble said: “He probably wanted to go but I thought, maybe, Slaven Bilic should have been a bit more stubborn.

“You don’t hear a lot about him because he goes about his work quietly but he is an underrated player. It’s always ideal if you can keep your home-grown players and we are still good friends but that’s football.”