Tomkins/Palace update

James Tomkins was this morning edging closer to a cross London move which will see him join Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace.

The Mail reported last night that a fee of £12.5 million is involved but ClaretandHugh understands that would include numeous clauses and that the basic fee is closer to £10 million.

The clauses would include appearances, a top six finish, guarantee against relegation and such like.

We reported in mid June that Slaven Bilic is happy to allow the 27 year old the move as Tomkins had made it clear he wasn’t happy sitting on the bench as had been the case last season.

An inside source had told us that the manager wasn’t ready to entertain the prospect of unhappy players and immediately accepted James’ position.

However, the manager had been looking at the player was long ago as last summer when he had made his mind up that he would eventually strengthen in that position and allow Tomkins a move if he got the right fee.

We have received a report that Tomkins will face a second medical over the weekend and that as long as he passes that the deal will be announced early next week.