James Tomkins of West Ham United celebrates scoring the winning goal
Slaven Bilic has demonstrated today that he has the ruthless streak demanded of all great managers.
James Tomkins – 20 years a Hammer and loved by the fans as a result – is no more… unhesitatingly sold to Crystal Palace for £10 million.
Slav takes no notice whatsoever of reputations and we revealed last summer that Tomkins was not a player who would be around for long under his management.
The only surprise to us was that he remained in the squad as long as he did.
We were told by a source very close to the manager last July that he was the one regular first teamer who would be allowed to leave if the buying club met the price – and whatever your view of the player £10 million is good business.
The big central defender, as loyal a Hammer as there has been, has served well but the manager wants to improve all areas and most will have no problem with that.
James is a competent central defender at his best but there have been the usual mixture of fabulous and hair-raising moments in his life as a Hammer.
Slav was a fine central defender – one of the best – and knows what he requires. I’m not here to argue with a bloke who has got all the big decisions right so far.
Everybody at ClaretandHugh wishes JT all the very best as he moves across London and it’s nailed on that he will always be a Hammer.
We move on and the watchwords have to be Trust Slav!
good luck James and one good thing is you will probably get a try out for Enghland now you dont play for us. lol
Yes Hugh, my first commandment is “I believe in Slav”… my second commanment is “I believe in Slav, but Payet remains untouchable”… lol 😉
He clearly didnt rate him.I can live with that.It will be interesting to see who we bring in or if we bring anyone else in as a replacement.I believe we will.Im surprised we got £10 million for him.Good luck to the kid,always a Hammer that is for certain.
In Slav We Trust
Hopefully this will drive some transfers. Were falling behind alot of clubs here and gonna miss some top quality players. In my opinion we should sort out Tore soon as. Spend about 5-10 Mil on a right back (liked the sound of meunier but don’t know what the latest is on that or whether it’s still possible) and then spend the rest and maybe sell valencia/Sakho to spend big big money on icardi or if possible (big if, flying very close to the sun) try to sign dybala. Both destined for champions league football and both still young. Dybala especially is going to be one of the top strikers in the world in a few years
Personally I’d like to see another centre mid and another centre back come our way but Id prefer quality over quantity. Maybe keep an eye out for matas situation at man u with Jose taking over. Also like the look of Roberto pererya at juve
Meunier went it PSG yesterday.
Ah balls, back to the drawing board
Wish james tomkins the best of luck …..hes going to need it if his signing picture for palace is anything to go by…he looks like he’s about to cry…lol ….
I thought the same buddy,he looked less than happy lol
Money towards an upgrade the way I see it fellas.I have read a lot across the Hammers sites from fans about it being a mistake to sell him but let’s wait to see who we sign between now & the start of the season before fans cry foul on Bilic or accuse him of leaving us short in defence.
Best of luck Tommo you were a great servant to the club, I am sure you will be a big success at Palace, it is a shame to see you go but at your age if you have ambition why should you be warming the bench for sure you will be first choice under Pardew, As for Slav yes he has the courage of his own convictions £10m is excellent business and will increase the striker budget please Dave’s make Janssen an offer he can’t refuse, if we can get him we will have yet another World class player to help convince Payet his future is with us, fingers crossed we can also get a right back although I believe Byram if he can improve his defending is not only our answer but also a future England right back, he has the pace the athleticism and the passing / crossing ability the only think lacking is an improvement in game awareness and defending all of which will improve with age.
There’s no room for sentiment in football , he made a few mistakes which have cost us crucial goals against , man u q/f for one . But the lad has a c& b heart and soul , it must be gut wrenching for him to leave us , wish him all the best in his career , always a hammer,
20 years !! A legend , good luck mate .
As Noble said in his tweet about Tomkins move..’Thats football for ya’..he was right,players come & players go.Most are soon forgotten within a month once new players are in claret & blue.Its how it is.
Don’t think Tonks will be forgotten in a hurry, always assured of a big welcome; hope he scores against us on his return – but only a consolation goal in reply to Dimi’s hat trick 🙂
Gutted his gone and despite trusting slav nothing anyone says will convince me we haven’t made a mistake, we gonna bring in some Cameroonian on a free from Marseille to replace him, pfffttt
Gret chap, great club servant. I got to speak to him very briefly the year we went down, after the match against manure (2-4). Did not take himself too seriously (see Keane for instance, who brought nothing to the club and was ARROGANT) and was very available and pleasant. Signed autographs for whoever wanted.
He will do well. I wish him the best.
Interesting – my family and I were at the club shop one cold and wet New Year’s Eve on a visit from Swansea… The players were in the car park getting ready for the coach. JT couldn’t be bothered to say anything and just about managed to sign our book begrudgingly – whereas Jarvis, Collison, Spiegal were brilliant! Vaz Te even took our book on the coach to try and get signatures… Since that moment he went down in my estimation – no excuses, everyone else was friendly enough! Bit of a shame really! #coyi #inslavwetrust
Sorry, Jeff, but when you are in the public eye all the time with people wanting a piece of you, sometimes…just sometimes you might not be in the mood…or maybe he had received some bad news; you don’t know. Sometimes people badgering you for autographs, converations about anything and everything, can be very wearing….and occasionally one loses it….Or to quote/re-edit you: “Since your comment, YOU (Jeff) have gone down in MY estimation”!
Sorry, “cometh” but would you like to have explained that to my cold and wet children who were waiting to see the players? We weren’t “badgering” we were standing by the fence actually and players were coming over and talking to us. I’d rather he hadn’t bothered than the frosty reception we got from him. Doesn’t take much to put on a fake smile and be pleasant to someone for 30 secs, who are fans and paying your wages essentially.. It’s par for the course.
Gutted. It is rare that THAT many Hammers fans are upset to see a player leave, and a mark of the esteem that they hold Tommo in.
But we do have to trust Slav, even if personally I just don’t understand it.
Thank you Tommo for the many good times, and especially one of my favourite tackles of all time v Swansea on Bony at the Boleyn a couple of seasons ago:
Shelvey put Bony away with a brilliant through ball for 1 on 1 with the keeper, and Tommo had to race after him. He managed to get beside him and get a nick on the ball, which trickled away harmlessly to the side. Bony launched himself like a seasoned long jumper, looking to get Tommo sent off and a free kick. But ref, Howard Webb wasn’t having any of it. Perfectly good tackle…BRILLIANT TACKLE!
Tommo, I hope you do that well at CP that we regret selling you, and that you get into England contention…
Hopefully you will always be a Hammer at heart….one of us.
So, let’s see, the biggest bit of business we’ve done so far is to sell someone.
Now with another ten mil. In the kitty, do you think we can actually persuade a top striker to gamble his future on us.?