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Burnley have been lined with a move for veteran defender James Collins who is free agent after being released by West Ham.
The 34-year old Welsh international is regarded, according to The Sun on Sunday, as a short-term fix and is likely to be offered a one year deal, with Burnley yet to tie down Ben Mee to a new long-term contract at the club.
Collins began his career at Cardiff City before the first of his two spells at West Ham, which was punctuated by a three year stint at Aston Villa. Something of a cult hero with Hammers fans, the tall balding centre half won 51 caps for his country, before announcing his international retirement last year.
Despite his long association with West Ham, the club only informed by email that he was not part of new manager Manuel Pellegrini’s plans for next season, which was a disappointing way for his career in East London to be brought to an end.
Nevertheless, Collins still was charitable in his farewell message on Instagram to West Ham fans, saying “Feel it’s now time to thank every member of staff and every player I’ve ever worked with at West Ham, I had an amazing 11 years at the club and can honestly say I gave my all in every training session and in every game I played and loved every minute of it.”
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.