West Ham turn down £4m offer for Tomkins

West Ham have turned down an improved bid of £4 million from Newcastle for their defender James Tomkins according to reports in the press.

However it is believed that the England Under 21 defender wants to move to Newcastle and has abandoned talk of a new deal at Upton Park as he seeks to push a transfer through, with some sources suggesting that the player has even handed in a transfer request.

That seems to be just rumour for the moment and nothing official has come out of the London club or from Tomkins' advisors and I expect we'll see this one drag on for a while longer yet. West Ham, like we did, will not want to sell any players as they look to cement promotion back to the Premier League so can afford to wait for the right offer to come along.

What is the right offer though? I think at £4 million we're just about getting towards the top of what I'd pay for the Essex born defender. Any more and I honestly think we could get better value elsewhere so I think that the club need to think carefully before going back in with another increased bid.

The worrying thing is that we seem dead set on Tomkins and are likely to go back in again. Ok, that part isn't exactly worrying, but when you look at a bid that is starting to get nearer £5 million or perhaps more you have to wonder what role the player will have in the first team. Will he be a squad player? Or will he be a replacement for someone like Fabricio Coloccini?

I hope it's the former obviously. We do need a defender, or maybe even two, but I can't shake the notion that we'll shed a defender along the way.

It would be madness, but this is Newcastle United and you can't quite discount it an you?