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Football

24th May 2018

West Ham fans are furious with the club for their tweet on Thursday morning

Too little, too late

Darragh Murphy

It’s official. James Collins is leaving West Ham.

Collins’ contract with the club he has called home for over a decade will not be renewed and he will be free to leave at the end of June.

It’s not entirely surprising that the defender is being let go but the reported manner of his departure has not sat well with supporters because, apparently, Collins was informed of the decision via email.

To bid farewell to Collins, who amassed 214 appearances for West Ham over two spells, in such brutally impersonal fashion imaginable has inspired plenty of criticism from Hammers fans.

Former Chelsea and Wimbledon midfielder Vinnie Jones was disgusted by the news.

“If the reports are true, that’s probably the lowest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jones told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast earlier this week.

“How can you put so much into the club… it should be testimonial time, the fans should be turning out for him!

“Is that the way we’ve gone? That’s pretty ruthless.”

On Thursday morning, the club confirmed that they were parting ways with the fan favourite and posted a highlight video to their official Twitter account.

But fans felt that it was inappropriate for West Ham to suddenly want to pay tribute to Collins’ contribution to the club when they reportedly hadn’t paid him the respect to speak to him face-to-face to explain his fate.