During two spells at West Ham United, James Collins shared a dressing room with the likes of Mark Noble, Yossi Benayoun, Carlos Tevez, Dimitri Payet and Jarrod Bowen.
In short, some of the finest players to wear the claret and blue shirt in the Premier League era.
And that is without mentioning Javier Mascherano, Manuel Lanzini, Marko Arnautovic, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez and Scott Parker.
Collins remembers Danny Gabbidon and Matty Etherington fondly, too.
But, speaking on the latest edition of West Ham United’s Ironcast podcast, the former Wales international highlights a centre-half he shared a pitch with on 83 occasions as one of the very best. Not only in a Hammers shirt, but across the entire Premier League at his peak.
Four years after Winston Reid bid an injury-enforced goodbye to life at the London Stadium, Collins recalls playing alongside the New Zealand icon and feeling that West Ham was home to a defender capable of matching up to anyone else in England’s top flight.
Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty ImagesJames Collins says Winston Reid was a Premier League standout at West Ham United
Between 2012 and 2018, Collins and Reid enjoyed many a happy afternoon.
That 3-0 away win at bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur, for instance, as well as big home triumphs over Liverpool and Man City under Sam Allardyce.
Reid was so imperious around that time that, according to the Daily Mail, Arsene Wenger had hoped to lure him across the capital to Arsenal. The aforementioned Spurs were also sniffing around.
So it was a major relief to West Ham, and Collins, when Reid signed a new six-year deal just before the transfer window opened in 2015.
“I know he’s my mate [but] I truly believe Reidy was one of, if not the best, centre-half in the league. Honestly, I truly believe that,” Collins says, reflecting on an era when John Terry, Toby Alderweireld, Gary Cahill and Jose Fonte were at the peak of their powers.
“I think I’ve said it before, probably after a couple of beers, but I’m saying it.
“Some of his performances… he was single-handedly defending sometimes on his own. If I was having an off-day or whatever, where the team wasn’t doing well, he was [the stand-out].
“I’m not even lying. I think he was one of the best in the Premier League, if not the best.”
Reid explains the injury which ended his Hammers career
As it happened, Reid would end up seeing out the remainder of his career at the London Stadium. But not in the way he would have envisaged. A serious knee injury suffered during a heavy defeat by Swansea City in March 2018 helped bring about a premature and rather tragic end to his time as one of the Premier League’s premier centre-halves.
Reid did not even make a single appearance during his final four years as a West Ham player, until his contract expired in 2022.
“I remember I got concussed and then, as I went down, my knee gave way. And that was it. We lost [to Swansea] that day, as well! All in all, it wasn’t a great day!,” Reid says. “Actually, the injury itself, it wasn’t that bad.
“I tore an MCL which sounds bad, but it’s not an ACL. It’s normally three to four months [recovery time]. I had surgery, started rehab, but found out the screws they put in were a little bit too tight. I went for another operation to loosen the screws, and then we went on pre-season five or six months later.
“I remember walking into the gym with the physio and my knee just gave way. I was just walking! Basically, there was a piece of bone in my knee which got dislodged from the injury, and it finally just came off.
“I think they said ten months or something.
“I had that operation, then I had another operation on it. By the time I came back, it was a year and a half I guess.
“That’s part of the game. I was lucky. Up until 31, I didn’t really have any major injuries.”