Crystal Palace have signed defender James Tomkins from West Ham for £10m.

Tomkins, 27, has signed a five-year contract at Selhurst Park and becomes Palace manager Alan Pardew’s third signing of the summer following the acquisitions of winger Andros Townsend from Newcastle and goalkeeper Steve Mandanda from Marseille.

“I am really excited to be joining Crystal Palace, a massive club and a manager in Alan Pardew that I know well and will always be thankful for how he helped me develop in my younger days at Upton Park,” he said.

Tomkins did not travel with the rest of the West Ham squad for their pre-season tour of America ahead of the transfer.

Tomkins, who came through the youth ranks at West Ham, made 32 appearances for Slaven Bilic’s side last season.

He featured predominantly at right-back for the Hammers during the 2015/16 campaign, scoring in the FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester United.

Hammers Captain, Mark Noble, like many Hammer’s fans was disappointed by his former team-mate’s move said “Looked after Tonka for 16 years, been through everything together, sad day for me but that’s football for ya, good luck geezer”

As stated by our very own ExWHUEmployee on numerous occasions, this move was most likely down to the fact that Bilic made a decision to develop his two young defenders, Reece Oxford and Reece Burke and the only way he could give them more playing time in order to secure their future’s was to let a player go that wanted more playing time himself.

I’m sure it was a tough decision for the Manager but it seems at this point it will benefit all parties if the Hammers can get both Oxford and Burke to commit their futures to the club in the long-term and Tomkins gets to play on a regular basis for Crystal Palace.