Crystal Palace have certainly been flaunting their financial muscles this week, they rivalled our bid for Michy Batshuayi earlier on in the week and have recently signed the pair of Andros Townsend from Newcastle, and Steve Mandanda from Marseille.
Their biggest show of strength was definitely their bid for Batshuayi, which was in the region of around £30 million, which took everybody by surprise.
But what’s really taken me by surprise this morning is the news that they have had a bid of £12.5 million pounds accepted for our own James Tomkins. A product of our esteemed youth academy, he could be another player yet sold on to another club.
There’s been whispers that Tomkins may leave this season, with the emergence of players like Burke and Oxford bursting through the ranks, he might be weighing up his options elsewhere.
He made 32 appearances for the Hammers last season, the majority of which happening in the Premier League, and helped guide our side to seventh in the table and making it to the preliminary qualification rounds of the Europa League. Tomkins completed 51% of his duels, recording 113 clearances and 53 interceptions in the process.
Primarily used a right back last season, he was a reassured sight at the back, but with Antonio’s impressive cameo in that position later on in the season, his playing time had vanished.
It will be a sad sight to see, another of our youth players playing for another side, it would take a lot of adjustment to see Tomkins in a Crystal Palace shirt for sure. But, a self-respecting professional does not want to sit on the bench and, unfortunately, he just cannot seem to get game time at the moment, especially with Collins’ exceptional performances of late.
So then, a question must be asked, would you be happy to see another product of our youth academy leave the club for the reported £12.5 million bid on the table?
