Source: Daily_Mail
Portsmouth's last man standing David James on the Fratton Park turmoil
Defence mechanism: David James[LNB]David James compares Portsmouth to Petrocelli's house. 'You remember him,' says the England goalkeeper.[LNB] 'The TV detective who never finished building his home. I used to drive past this place on the Wirral when I was at Liverpool. It was always a building site. 'Petrocelli's house,' my ex-wife used to say. This club is the same. Never finished. Apparently they've been building the new stadium for the last 15 years.' [LNB]James does a nice line in self-deprecation, too. 'Every time I play I break two of three records,' he says. 'The Premier League appearances record, the clean sheet record, or the goals conceded record. I can't get away from it. Always two of the three.' [LNB]But after more appearances than any other player (548) and more clean sheets (166) than any other goalkeeper has achieved in the Barclays Premier League, how else is he expected to reflect on life at Fratton Park?[LNB] How else is he supposed to respond to questions concerning the club's dire financial situation? The fact that the team that only 15 months ago lifted the FA Cup has been sold around him. [LNB]The one-liners, it seems, are delivered as a kind of defence mechanism. 'If you think about it too much it will drive you nuts,' he says. [LNB]James does not want this to be the kind of interview that only adds to the sense of anxiety at Portsmouth. Especially when Paul Hart's side have started the new season so poorly. [LNB] To the point: James in Pompey action[LNB]But he considers it necessary to be honest if only to communicate to the club's potential new owners - should Sulaiman Al Fahim prove that he really does have the money - the kind of issues that need to be addressed.[LNB] At 39, James is not one to duck a difficult subject, as he demonstrated in his first Sunday newspaper column of the season when he wrote about administration.[LNB] 'In some ways there has been progress since we won the FA Cup,' he says. 'For certain individuals it has been great. Look at Glen Johnson. He started life with us on loan from Chelsea and now he's at Liverpool. He was fantastic for us. Someone I knew was going to be good from our days together at West Ham. [LNB]'But he's a guy who wants to spread his wings, as it were, and Liverpool amounted to an amazing opportunity for him. So I can understand a move like that. [LNB]New owner: Sulaiman al Fahim[LNB]'But here it seems any player who has a value becomes available. That's the bit I struggle with. Along one of the corridors at Fratton Park there's a big photograph of the team that won the Cup. I look at it every time I go to the stadium and most of the players are no longer here. And it was little more than a year ago. [LNB]'As a player, it becomes frustrating. You want to be part of a side that is progressive. If you look at our top scorers from last season, most of them have gone. Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Sulley Muntari. Players are being sold and they're not really being replaced.[LNB] 'I know some new signings are being made but it has left us with a very small squad. On the back of the programme, for the first game of the season against Fulham, there were 22 players but four of them were goalkeepers. So we couldn't have even had an 11 v 11 in training.[LNB] 'When I came here I obviously realised I wasn't joining Manchester United. It was something that suited me. An opportunity to prolong my career. [LNB]'I liked what Harry Redknapp was trying to create and I had it in my mind, when I signed, that I would use it to get back in the England side.[LNB] 'The same weekend I arrived here I got a call from Steve McClaren telling me I wasn't going to be involved with England in the future. So that was good. [LNB]'I remember being shown the facilities, and it wasn't very impressive. But I was told that, while this is where we are, this is where we are going to be. Three years later and nothing has changed. The training ground, the stadium. They have invested in a new training pitch and put up a few Portakabins but that's about it. [LNB]'If I'm honest I'm not overly concerned with all that. These things happen. People have plans but they don't always come off. But it's what has happened on the pitch that troubles me.' [LNB]James actually thinks that winning the FA Cup when they did was the worst thing that could have happened to the club. [LNB] Latest loss: Sylvain Distin has completed his switch to Everton this week[LNB]'It was like a poisoned chalice,' he says. 'A club has to have those kind of ambitions, and winning the FA Cup for Portsmouth was a magical moment. The stuff dreams are made of and something not many clubs get to experience. [LNB]'But it meant we got to where we were trying to get a bit too quickly. Suddenly we're in Europe. Suddenly we're playing AC Milan at Fratton Park. And we weren't ready for it.[LNB] 'We were already starting to lose players, and we weren't generating the kind of income to stay at that level. We don't get gates of any more than 19,000. For the opening game of this season against Fulham there were 2,000 empty seats. [LNB]'It was great, the night against Milan. Like a dream. Pure magic. I don't like Ronaldinho for the goal he scored but it made the evening. [LNB]Much missed: Former boss Harry Redknapp[LNB]'Ronaldinho graced Fratton Park that night and showed us why he's one of the best players in the world. Kaka wasn't so good. He had a one-on-one with me and he missed. And then Inzaghi comes on and scores in the last minute.[LNB] 'But in a season when we should have been consolidating the success we had enjoyed before continuing the building process, we took a massive nosedive. Starting with the loss of Harry to Tottenham.'[LNB] And the promotion of Tony Adams to the position of manager. 'I'm going to sound like a big Harry fan here but he created this environment that worked,' says James.[LNB] 'His man-management was excellent. Everyone understood what they were involved in. How things worked.[LNB] 'Then the reins were suddenly handed to someone else (he means Adams) and it was like the guy was trying to stay on a bucking bronco. Harry knew how to do it. Someone else took over and we struggled. I'm sorry but I can't say anything nice about that period.[LNB] 'We lost players and we became a completely different team. We had been hard to beat. We had a system, an understanding, and it was successful. But we lost that solidity, that strength. I know I sound so negative but it's impossible to say anything else. I'm a football fan and I think I feel the way the Portsmouth fans do.' [LNB]If Redknapp gets his way he might just offer James an escape route to Tottenham before the transfer window closes. But these, like the financial upheaval at Fratton Park, are things that are beyond James's control. [LNB]He can only concentrate on the job he has right now. On giving his all for Portsmouth and protecting his position as the goalkeeper most likely to start for England at next summer's World Cup, even though he will be a month away from his 40th birthday. [LNB]As James enjoys a coffee at a hotel near Portsmouth's training ground, he notes the appearance of Lance Armstrong on the TV. 'Didn't he just finish second in the Tour de France at the age of 37?' he says. 'After taking three or four years out.' [LNB] Glory days: James with some of the Pompey squad that tasted FA Cup success[LNB]He did, and James is then reminded that Dino Zoff was 40 when he lifted the World Cup for Italy in 1982; that Peter Shilton was 40 at Italia '90; that Carlos Lopes was 37 when he won the 1984 Olympic marathon and 38 when he broke the world record for the distance. [LNB]'Exactly,' he says. 'It's frustrating when people mention the age tag. But I don't think Mr Capello looks at my age. He looks at the goalkeeper, which is reassuring. [LNB]'I look after myself. Eat healthily, train hard, rest properly. And I feel good. I've missed the last few England games because of injury but I'm fit now and I hope to be involved in the next few games. [LNB]'Age is not an issue. Not for me anyway. People say it takes longer to recover from injury when you get older but I had a shoulder operation at the start of the summer that they said would put me out for 12 weeks, possibly 14 to 16 weeks. I was ready in eight.' [LNB] Number one: James still covets the England goalkeeper's jersey[LNB]He wants to keep going for as long as he can. If only to add to the collection of football kits that he is currently in the process of having cleaned. [LNB]'You know me,' he says. 'I'm a bit of an obsessive collector. Chopper bikes, Action Men. I'm now into 12-inch action figures. Characters from Star Wars; things like that. It's a bit odd when Darth Vader is the same size as Luke Skywalker but they have a value. And I enjoy it. [LNB]'The football kits are slightly different. I must have at least 500, collected over the years. I had this romantic notion of sitting down with my grandchildren one day and talking them through every one. Because they all have a story. [LNB]'Like the kit I got from a kid playing for Senegal's Under 21s. He had to give me his training kit because they only had one strip. But then I thought by the time I get to the Burnley kit I got in my first season at Liverpool the grandchildren might be getting a bit bored.' [LNB]A talented artist, James now has other plans for them. 'I've decided to create a piece of art with them,' he says.[LNB] 'I have this idea. I won't say what it is yet. But I've also got this idea for some of the fan mail I've received over the years.'[LNB] If nothing else it will take his mind off the chaos at Fratton Park. [LNB] PORTSMOUTH v Manchester City: Keeper David James in line to face old employersSpurs sell misfit Boateng to Pompey for £4m with O'Hara leaving on loanAndy Townsend's boot room: Spurs owe their start to Palacios the Tank PORTSMOUTH FC
