James Tomkins has revealed it broke his heart to leave his boyhood Club West Ham United nine years ago in the latest revealing episode of Iron Cast.
The 36-year-old announced his retirement in March, bringing an end to a 17-year career that saw him make 243 appearances, suffer relegation, win promotion and score in Europe for the Hammers, represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games and be branded ‘too good looking to be a defender’ by then-Irons manager Sam Allardyce!
Tomkins joined the Club at the age of seven, made his senior debut and won the Young Hammer of the Year award at 18, suffered relegation at 22, won promotion and became an Olympian at 23, then departed following the final game at the Boleyn Ground at 27.
Nine years on from his transfer to Crystal Palace, the centre-back reflected on his eventful career, his exit from east London and looked ahead to his post-playing career.
“At the time, it almost broke my heart because I didn’t want to leave as I’d been there 19 or nearly 20 years, so it was a massive decision, but made easier by the fact I needed to go out and play games,” Tomkins told hosts Chris Scull and James Collins, his teammate on 65 occasions in Claret and Blue.
“You (Collins), Angelo Ogbonna and Winston Reid would have been the main ones and I felt like, if I was fourth in line, I had to get out.
“It was a time in my career when I feel like I was probably hitting my prime in that age between 26 and 30 and those were my best years as a centre-half, I’d say, so I needed to play as many games as I could and for me [Crystal Palace] was a good option for me as well because [their manager] Alan Pardew knew me from West Ham and he liked me as a young lad growing up, so it was an easy decision for that as well.”
Winding the clock back to 1996, Tomkins joined the Academy of Football initially as a forward, rather than as a defender.
“I came in as a striker and a winger and then I moved to the back because I thought I could probably further my career being a centre-half and it obviously worked out eventually for me, but you never know how far I could have gone being a striker!” he smiled.
“Joe Cole and Michael Carrick being in the team are the earliest days I can remember. They were the main players watching when I was coming through.
“Pards was good at making young kids train with the first team. I was 16 or 17 when I was training with the big lads. You feel tiny compared to some of them, stepping into a big world and getting stick off the lads! I remember driving in a new BMW and the lads egging my car – you can’t do that now!”
Tomkins was one of a number of Academy graduates who broke through in quick succession in the late 2000s, alongside his great friend Jack Collison, Freddie Sears, Junior Stanislas and Zavon Hines, all of whom went on to enjoy successful senior careers.
“It was a good bunch of lads coming through,” Tomkins recalled. “That was nice and they really wanted to progress the Academy lads, so that felt good and the fans loved that as well. They love the homegrown players here.”
Tomkins and Collison famously featured on a matchday programme cover for the final game of the 2007/08 Premier League season against Aston Villa, then-19-year-old Tomkins dressed in a cardigan, his hair gelled forward and a moody look on his face.
“It’s horrible, that!” he laughed, looking at the photo again.
Two months previously, he had debuted in a 1-1 draw with Everton at Goodison Park, where he was given a baptism of fire by the Blues’ Nigeria international striker Yakubu.
“I remember the feeling,” he said. “Leading up to it, I never really thought I was going to play. Curbs (manager Alan Curbishley) used to come to the back of the coach when we pulled up to away games and announce the team, which was obviously a bit different, but it worked for me, he said my name and I didn’t have much time to be nervous. The nerves did kick in, though, and I even forgot to put tickets out for my family!
“I remember the lads trying to tell me how to deal with Yakubu because he was a big lump and he was probably going to find me out a little bit on my debut.
“I hit the bar [with a header] after about ten or 15 minutes and I thought ‘imagine if I score on my debut’, then five minutes later I thought I’d go for a little header and it was obviously a bit naïve of me as suddenly he put his body in, rolled me and scored! All I could think was the lads telling me I’d got too tight, so I learned very early on that, in the Premier League, you get found out for every mistake.”
After a spell at Derby County on loan, Tomkins returned and, after Collins suffered an injury, he broke through under Gianfranco Zola and scored his first goal in a home win over Sunderland in April 2009. Following Collins’ departure to Aston Villa and Danny Gabbidon suffering his own injury, Tomkins established himself in the team in 2009/10.
After laughing about a story when his teammate and near-neighbour Mark Noble flew a drone over his garden, and reflecting on the red cards he was shown in his career, Tomkins discussed the rollercoaster of emotions of suffering relegation from the Premier League in 2011, then winning promotion in the Championship Play-Off final at Wembley in 2012.
“Everything went wrong [in 2010/11],” he recalled. “I remember Wigan away and they needed to win as well and it was a massive game, and that was the worst day of my career in terms of emotions and stuff like that, as it’s the day we went down. We went 2-0 up and lost 3-2, it was shocking. The whole season was a massive low.
“The most important thing then was to get promoted straight away. We didn’t want to hang about in the Championship as it’s a tough league to get out of, so that was the first thing and we did it, and the route we did it was unbelievable.”
A ball-playing defender, Tomkins was initially shocked by manager Allardyce’s style of play, but when it reaped dividends, he was happy to be part of a winning team.
“Coming through the Academy, I was trying to look all nice playing out, so it was different, and more direct,” he explained. “He liked his stats and it all made sense.
“It was a breath of fresh air and you could see the change in us. Alright, the football wasn’t the prettiest at times, which we all knew, but we dealt with it and started thinking ‘this is how we’re going to win games’ and we did!
“We went on a good run, finished third and went into the Play-Offs and ended up going up, which was a nice feeling, even if it was a bit nerve-wracking!”
Having played in 47 of a possible 49 league games, kept 17 clean sheets and scored four goals, Tomkins was voted into the PFA Championship Team of the Year and finished as runner-up to Noble in the Hammer of the Year voting.
Over the next four seasons, he suffered his own injury issues on occasions, but was still a regular starter when fit, helping the Hammers re-establish themselves as a Premier League club.
Tomkins’ partnership with New Zealand international Winston Reid played a big role in West Ham’s resurgence, with the pair lining up 115 times together.
“I feel like you need a good stretch with someone to get that understanding and build that partnership and I feel we did that in the Championship because we played a lot of games together,” he said. “We were very rarely injured at the same time, so we built that relationship and understanding and it just worked well and had a good balance to it.”
In 2015/16, he scored against Lusitanos of Andorra and then scored and was sent-off against Birkirkara of Malta in West Ham’s all-too-brief UEFA Europa League run, then played his role as Slaven Bilić’s side finished seventh in the Premier League in the Club’s historic final season at the Boleyn Ground.
That campaign saw France international Dimitri Payet become an instant West Ham hero, as the talented playmaker destroyed Premier League defences – and his own teammates in training!
“We were just in shock!” Tomkins laughed. “It wasn’t just him, but Manu Lanzini as well! In training he was half-pace and turned it on when he wanted to, but in games he was a different level. He was unbelievable. I thought we were going to win the league!”
Payet starred in the final game played at the Boleyn Ground – and Tomkins’ final home appearance as a West Ham player – against Manchester United in May 2016, when Bilić sent on the long-time Hammer for a memorable final five minutes as a substitute.
“Slav brought me on at right-back, and it was nice of him to give that to me as an Academy boy saying ‘goodbye’ to Upton Park,” he reminisced. “Obviously Reidy had scored that goal and it was written in the stars.
“The drive in was incredible. The team coach couldn’t move as there were so many people around the Boleyn pub. There were beers and beach balls flying around. It was such a passionate and emotional day for everyone. I remember people being in floods of tears.
“We didn’t want to leave that night.”
After eight seasons at Crystal Palace, Tomkins left the Eagles last summer and formally announced his retirement in March this year. He has no regrets.
“It’s an emotional time, but I had been planning it for months and it’s nice now to speak to the fans and tell a few stories!” he smiled.
“I sat down with my family and went away at Christmas, then came back and had decided I wanted to do something else, so I thought it was a good time to do it. Now, looking back, I sit back and appreciate what I had and the influences people had on my career.”
