With the signing of Angelo Ogbonna from Juventus, West Ham now have four first-team centre-backs to choose from to start the season with – Winston Reid, James Tomkins, James Collins and Ogbonna.
Undoubtedly, there will be injuries and squad rotation throughout the season, so they’ll all get significant game time, but there will be a preferred partnership at the heart of the defence.
James Tomkins is West Ham through and through. Been with the club since he was a boy and truly is one of our own. Trusted to skipper the side in our Europa league debut earlier this summer to guide an inexperienced side through the early stages, and recently signed a new deal until 2020, Tomkins is firmly in club’s plans going forwards, despite the interest of Newcastle.
Winston Reid has really emerged as a fan favourite in the three or four years. He broke into the team during our promotion campaign in the Championship, and scored that famous goal to beat Millwall at Upton Park! With his contract winding down, and Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham all waiting to pounce, Reid reaffirmed his commitment to the club by signing a mammoth six-and-a-half year deal until 2021. Another player here for the long-haul.
James Collins, the veteran of the group. ‘Ginge’ is another player who’s held in high regards by the West Ham faithful having returned to the club for a second spell following a brief stint with Aston Villa. The Welshman is getting up there in years, and only has one year to run on his contract who knows if he’ll be with us beyond this season, but one thing’s for sure, he will give everything for the team.
New signing Angelo Ogbonna made a strong debut against Southend yesterday in a pre-season friendly. The 27-year-old joins West Ham as he is about to enter his prime, leaving Italian champions and Champions League finalists Juventus for East London, athletic, has a lot of pace and is as strong as an Ox, Ogbonna could be the man who has all the physical attributes to compete with the likes of the nimble Sergio Aguero as well as the robust Olivier Giroud.
So that’s four pretty solid options for Slaven Bilic to choose from this season, and with exactly three weeks to go until our Premier League opener away at Arsenal, he doesn’t have much time to decide who his starting pairing will be. I’m sure he’ll make the right choice.
But what is the right choice? Why don’t you tell us by taking our poll below: Which centre-back partnership would you start the season with?
