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James Collins


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Collins makes Hammers return on a 4 year contract

West Ham have completed a deal to bring James Collins back to the club from Aston Villa on a four-year contract.

The Hammers agreed a fee with Villa earlier in the week and Sky Sports revealed on Tuesday that Collins had travelled to London to undergo a medical.

It has now been confirmed that Collins has returned to Upton Park, having spent four years with the club earlier in his career before moving to Villa in 2009.

Sam Allardyce has been looking to bolster his defence since winning promotion back to the Premier League and Collins will now face the challenge of trying to establish himself as a regular member of the starting XI.

The Wales international, 28, is thrilled to have joined the Hammers once again and hopes to make an important contribution over the next few years.

"It's great to be back," he told the club's official website.

"As soon as I knew the interest was there from West Ham I couldn't wait to get down and sign. I had a great affinity with the club and the fans when I was here the first time. "

James Collins

Quotes of the week

"Obviously having been here before and coming back and seeing some of the same old faces is great.

Affinity

"As soon as I knew the interest was there from West Ham I couldn't wait to get down and sign. I had a great affinity with the club and the fans when I was here the first time and I enjoyed my time here so much last time that it wasn't a hard decision to make, to be honest.

"I think everyone knew that I didn't really want to leave when I did [in 2009] because I was enjoying my time here so much.

"I've come back and I'm a much better player this time around so I can't wait to get cracking and show the fans that I am a better player and can put in the performances on the pitch.

"I've got so many good memories - getting into the FA Cup final in my first season and finishing so high [ninth] in the league and then the way we escaped relegation that year was one of my fondest memories in football. Hopefully I won't have too many more memories like that!

"I just cannot wait to get back and show the fans what a better player I am now."

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Not sad to see him go.

He never gave less than 100% and had one very good season but then couldn't sustain/repeat that under Houllier or McLeish.

Good luck to him.

I agree but its a good chance he couldn't sustain that because of the amount of defending we had to do over that period. Its likely even the best defenders would have made the odd mistake over that period due to what seemed like constant pressure.

He's a decent CB, not the greatest but by no means as bad as some make out.

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Honest player but probably one of the most brainless ever to have the luck to play Premier ball. A singularly unintelligent defender, with zero reading of the game. Lost count of the many times he went sprawling in front of an opposition attacker, often sliding metres away from play costing a goal, when he simply could've kept his feet and defended properly.

G'luck all the same.

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Wast Ham fans are generally happy about this

Sad to see him go a little as he is a solid defender to be fair.

Solid in what sense? We had the worst organisation at set pieces, we conceded ridiculous amounts from corners, he couldn't pass for toffee. Very Solid that.

I think Collins gets a rough deal on here. He is/was nowhere near as poor as what people make out.

All imo, but i think he is a better centre half than Dunne.

Im also going to put my balls on the block and say Dunne was at fault for more goals than Collins last year.

totally agree. i read somewhere that in terms of ea sports PPI points (blocked shots, headers etc) he was 2nd behind john terry for centre halfs last season so i dont think he is nearly as bad as he is made out to be. he was just a quarter of a horrendous back 4 last season and think in a sweeper role with another CB doing the running / ball work then he could be decent. unfortunatly with dunne by his side the pair are a liability. thanks for the efforts james

The last clean sheet we kept with Collins in the side was against Wigan where he played full 90mins, we also kept a clean sheet against Sunderland with him at home, but he came off after 40mins. Dunne returns from injury, is lined up next to Cuellar against an in-form Albion side and we keep a clean sheet, no coincidence, just because he is over 6-foot does not make him a good defender or a solid one, his positional sense is diabolical, i agree he's good at putting his body on the line but other than that he is actually very poor defender. Dunne makes mistakes, I agree but to say Collins is a better defender is barmy, tell me when has Collins put in a performance like Dunne did against Russia in Moscow? Collins and Dunne is a very poor combination, actually anyone with Collins is very poor.

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As a mark of respect, we should all take a moment and turn our thoughts to those who stand to lose as much as their livelihoods as a result of this news.

Local brewers, you have our support.

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I think the who should have gone first debate over Collins and Dunne boils down to how much we would have got for either player.

We got £2.5m roughly for Collins in the last year of his deal. I can't see us getting more than £0.5m for Dunne who is 33 and also in the final year of his contract.

Both need to go but Collins makes more financial sense right now.

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You're right. Dunne is less saleable and on that basis he might be worth more to us in the squad than if we were to sell and have 0.5m - 1m in the bank. His experience and added depth to the squad can't be replaced with the paltry money we'd get for him.

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