James Collins reveals he signed contract then ripped it up just 20 minutes later in classy gesture

Former footballer James Collins reveals he signed a contract then ripped it up just 20 minutes later in a classy gesture.

He recently appeared on the Peter Crouch’s podcast, saying that he ripped up his own Aston Villa contract just a few minutes into his first training session.

Following his release from West Ham at the age of 35, he began training at Villa again, with the prospect of a second stint for the Premier League club.

He impressed manager Dean Smith, and was offered a five-week contract. However, he injured his calf in his first training session after signing the short-term deal, potentially ruling him out for its duration, leading Collins to cancel the contract.

Fair fucking play to James Collins for this 👏

What a mad story… pic.twitter.com/Hal4tNRwMO

— george (@StokeyyG2) February 10, 2025

Collins said: “You’re only going up there to train. Dean Smith gets the job, JT goes in with him.

“So I spoke to JT, he said ‘carry on coming up and we’ll have a look at you’.

“I felt good doing a bit of training, they offered me a contract. It was going to be a two, three-month contract.

“This is how mad it is as a footballer. I had to sign it on the Thursday to be on the bench for the Saturday.

“I signed it Thursday about 10.20am. I’m signing it, stuff like that, so by the time I’ve signed and gone out for training, the boys have started their warm ups and they’re on the sprints.

“So I thought me being old, I’ll go straight into the sprints. I did a sprint and popped my calf.

“I’ve just signed this contract for Villa, so I went over to Dean Smith and JT and went, ‘boys I’ve just popped my calf’.

“Because I’ve done my calf so much I knew it was quite bad. I went running quick and ripped the contract up because I knew I would only sign for three, four months.

“I did love my time at Villa and they were really good to me. But I thought I can’t sign a four-month contract and be injured for two of them.

“I was technically a Villa player. I went to Smith, ‘look, I can’t do that to you because I could be out for two months’.

“I ran back in to the secretary and said, ‘have you sent that contract off yet?’ She went, ‘no’, so I went ‘we’re going to have to rip it up, I’ve just pulled my calf’.

“I could have sat there, I knew my calves could have been two or three months, their contract wasn’t (long) so I said, ‘let’s rip it up, I can’t do that to you’. Then I went, got fit and ended up at Ipswich.”

Twitter users reacted after James Collins reveals he signed contract then ripped it up just 20 minutes later in a classy gesture…

@EssexPR: One of my best pals, legend.

@dakinglongwood: Again another player in the mould of the great Billy Bonds gave everything he had for his club on the pitch and a class act of it pure class, it’s players like him every club needs on and off the pitch

@dannybarton19: Soft cunt 😂

@ClaretBluBlood: Ginge is a fucking ledge. We love him at West Ham.

@ReeceHu0794609: Fair play

@AndyJPhipps: This also explains why he didn’t sign for a club for a while. I remember, at the time, him saying that maybe clubs thought he was going to ask more in wages than he was. He actually didn’t want to say he’d been injured 😢 ⚒️

@LukeGladman: Class from Collins here

@goonerwager: What a decent bloke. He wouldn’t have been injured though if he wasn’t training for them. Fair play. Better man then I am. 👏

@TheSportsBox1: James Collins, well done.

@chrislarge01: Always loved him at villa proper bloke 👏

@Anstey44: Top, top bloke on and off the pitch. That was the theme with THAT Welsh squad, we had so many brilliant PEOPLE in the team, you’d hope that’s the same with our youngsters now and that’s why it’s so important we have players like Allen, Ramsey and Davies still around

@CJSN1982: Not many people would do that!! Fair play to him!! 👌🏻

@SweeneySean_: If he had signed for #LCFC he never would have done this. Would be sat in the spa sipping champers! #LCFC🦊🏆

@ColBennettH4: Fuck that, I would have laying on the treatment table reaping every penny lol. The contract has been signed.

@UnaiThegoat: I would have stayed absolutely quiet and go down after my first touch of the ball in the first minute I play wether that’s from the first kick of the game or a substitute in the 90th minute 😂

@1955YAN: Honest bloke top man 👍👍

@Total_Villa: Fair play to James Collins, I had no idea this happened. I enjoyed watching him and Richard Dunne when I was younger because they were two no-nonsense, old fashioned centre-backs but my opinions of him have just increased even more 👏 #avfc

@JayVtid: I remember this vividly. Had massive respect for him ever since.

@bonty_jonty: Even before this happened, you would describe him as a decent, honest fella anyway. Always like him and Dunne at the bank heading everything away. Fair play to him anyway

@AndrewScarrott: Fair play to Collins, he had some good games for us.

@Mr_AVFC: Proper decent human to do that, fair play him. First I had heard of this

@IHoltender: Fair play. You were a good servant for the villa.

@itzwraggy: What’s mad, is the fact people like Micah Richards sat on a bench stealing a living for donkeys and there’s people like this guy