Leaving your boyhood club is never easy.
Michael Dawson cried when he left Tottenham, while Emile Smith Rowe found it hard to leave Arsenal over the summer.
West Ham have had to say goodbye to some real fan favourites over the years too.
Declan Rice left for Arsenal a couple of years ago, and back in 2016, James Tomkins left the club to join Crystal Palace.
Speaking on the Iron Cast Podcast, Tomkins has been discussing his departure from West Ham, and he says that it actually almost broke his heart to leave the Hammers at that point in time.
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James Tomkins was gutted to leave West Ham
Tomkins spoke about his departure from the east London club.
The defender says he left West Ham in search for gametime, claiming that it was an easy decision to join Crystal Palace as he knew Alan Pardew well.
However, Tomkins says that this decision did break his heart because he didn’t want to leave after spending two decades at the club through the academy system.
“I needed to play as many games as I could. That for me, it was a good option for me as well, because Pardew knew me from West Ham and he liked me as a lad growing up. For me, it was an easy decision for that as well,’ Tomkins said.
“At the time, it almost broke my heart because I didn’t want to leave. I was there 19, 20 years nearly, so it was a massive decision, but easier to the fact that I had to go out and play games.”
James Tomkins’ record vs West Ham
Tomkins would go on to spend eight years at Crystal Palace, and, throughout that period, the centre-back locked horns with his former club on a number of occasions.
Playing against your former club is never easy, and Tomkins actually had a rotten record when returning to face West Ham in the years that followed his departure.
| James Tomkins record vs West Ham | |
| Games | 6 |
| Wins | 1 |
| Draws | 2 |
| Losses | 3 |
Tomkins only beat West Ham once in his career – a 2-1 win back in the 2019/20 season.
Somewhat bizarrely, Tomkins did manage to register an assist in one of these games against his former team – one of only seven assists the centre-back managed in his entire Premier League career.
The defender found it tough to leave West Ham, and his poor record against the Hammers in the years that followed won’t have made that decision any easier in hindsight.
