West Ham United's James Tomkins has signed a new five-year deal with West Ham.
The 25-year-old Basildon born defender has been at the club since the age of seven and has since made 205 first team appearances for the club - the same as legendary sixties striker Johhny 'Budgie' Byrne (205) and more than eighties legend Frank McAvennie (191).His existing four year deal was set to expire next summer (2016) and whilst West Ham had the option of triggering a further 12 months, they opted instead to secure Tomkins' future with a new five-year deal that potentially keeps him at the club until 2020.
"I think it's brilliant that the Club has shown faith in me and offered me this deal - and I'm delighted to sign it," Tomkins told whufc.com this afternoon. "I've been here since I was seven and this is a long-term deal which is going to take me up until I'm in my thirties, so it's nice to commit my future.
"Being a West Ham fan, I want to spend my future here as it is exciting times with the Olympic Stadium move coming up in 2016. The club is going in the direction I wanted it to go and I want to be involved in. It's exciting all-round, for the club and for me.
"It's a good time and this year has been a great step forward. Now we just need to see it out. I look back at all the times I've been in the team, from when I made my debut at 18-years-old, and this is as well as we've done. Now we need to keep it going until the end of the season, because we have a lot of hard games coming up.
"We want to be going forwards, not backwards - and that's certainly where we're heading. It's a great time for us. We want to leave Upton Park on a high, so it's important we do the very best we can over the next 18 months leading up to the move."
James Tomkins: season stats
2007/08: Pld 6 Bkd 0 Red 0 Gls 0
2008/09: Pld 15 Bkd 0 Red 1 Gls 1 (Derby Pld 8 Bkd 1 Red 1 Gls 0)
2009/10: Pld 26 Bkd 0 Red 0 Gls 0
2010/11: Pld 28 Bkd 3 Red 0 Gls 1
2011/12: Pld 47 Bkd 6 Red 0 Gls 4
2012/13: Pld 29 Bkd 5 Red 0 Gls 1
2013/14: Pld 35 Bkd 6 Red 1 Gls 0
2014/15: Pld 19 Bkd 5 Red 0 Gls 1
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