David James wouldn’t be a calamity for Celtic
Will the English number 1 be the new Celtic keeper?
The internet
Batman movies
Skoda cars
All of these things were a bit rubbish and naff in the 1990s but through hard work, proper marketing or us all forgetting the bad moments, they’ve managed to gain a level of respectability. It just shows how opinions change over time…if you let them.
We’ve been keeping an eye on the David James to Celtic stories because we’ll let you into a secret here; we think David James is an excellent goalkeeper.
Yes, we remember the Calamity nickname.
Who could forget the gaffes in FA Cup finals for Liverpool and Aston Villa resulting in 1-0 defeats.
Of course the blundered goals that James puts down to playing his Gameboy for a silly amount of consecutive hours on the bus stick with is, of course they do.
Thing is, how long ago were all these mistakes?
We are not going to say we know English football inside out or follow their national team that well but when did James last make a big mistake? (And we don’t mean the musician James Last, he’s made a lot of mistakes!!)
Yes, he played in goals for relegated Portsmouth last season but anytime we saw him, he was keeping a defeat from being a hiding.
As for the national team, if James started against USA, he would not have blundered in the manner Green did, England would have won the group, avoided Germany and faced a Ghana team they would have had a better chance of winning against.
Not saying they would have went further than that because there were a lot of problems with that team but David James in goals for the first match would have saw England top their group. His experience would have made the difference over a nervous Robert Green.
From the top of our minds, Robert Green, Ben Foster, Paul Robinson and even David Seaman have made more recent blunders for the English national team than David James. David Seaman is still regarded as a safe goalkeeper even though Ronaldinho and Nayim have both lobbed Seaman from distance in high profile matches, so why is James saddled with past mistakes?
Celtic need experience in goals and they need presence.
Lukas Zaluska is not a bad stopper but he lacks presence and him rushing off his line isn’t going to frighten a striker as much as a Boruc or a James would. Scoring goals and making saves has a lot to do with the players mind and if the goalie is a big name, the striker may just wobble a bit before shooting…and that could make all the difference.
Aside from that, we like David James.
He is an intelligent man, his weekly column in the Observer was a great read and showed him to have a good understanding of the game and football’s standing in the community and society. He also does a lot of work for charity and he is respected in the English media.
Sure, he was a daft boy and some of his haircuts are more than questionable but David James is a credit to his profession and is the sort of personality Scottish football could do with.
Whether you think he is the answer to Celtic’s problems, whether he can justify the wages or is he fully over the injury problems that have plagued him of late….who knows and all of these questions need to be answered by Neil Lennon.
However, David James is a long way removed from the keeper once known as Calamity…and maybe those that don’t see it are too busy playing their SNES or Megadrive, drinking Hooch and buying Loaded magazine for the latest pull-out poster of Yasmine Bleeth.
See…Yasmine Bleeth…some things that were brilliant back in the day are not so great now…much like some things that were naff in the 90s may have changed it around quite a bit.
What’s your take on David James?
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Sol Campbell I get. David James, I don’t. I was actually quite dumbfounded last January that we never made a move for campbell. A man with the experience and class that he has in a position that we were screaming out for was a no-brainer as far as I could see. James though? Zaluska must be wondering why. We are about to lose a second Polish goalie in a few weeks if we treat these guys like they don’t exist. Why did we sign Zaluska? He was a top choice and top notch goalie at Dundee United. He has never let us down, and while we can all say that competition is good for players, we also all know that if we sign James he will become first choice. He will insist upon that for sure. We lost points over the past two seasons because while Artur was struggling we still played him rather than bring in Zaluska. We need an experienced centre half like Campbell to bring the best out of our youngsters but we have two good goalies now. Our focus has to be real and appropriate. james is not the answer.
All his mistakes arguably came from lapses of concentration so would he be any good to us?As we should be the attacking team with most possession i wonder if this club is the place for him when only called upon 2-3 times in 90 mins.
As a celtic fan living in Portsmouth i feel pretty able to comment on this issue and i can tell you that David James far from being a calamity has been pompey’s best and most consistent performer over the last few seasons. He is an exceptional goalkeeper who would do an excellent job for us for a season or two. Also down here he is known for his complete dedication and hard work in training and keeping himself in shape.. so age wont be a barrier. I’ve also met him on a couple of occassions and he is an extremely nice falla.. has time for everyone. I hope this signing does come off.. he’d be excellent for us.
Joe
You say Zaluska has never let Celtic down but he was in goal for two of the worst Celtic performances of the last decade.
Ross County semi final and the hammering by St Mirren that led to Tony Mowbray getting the sack the following day.
I’m not blaming Zaluska for both of those games but maybe the defence who’s confidence was never the best last season also never had the extra belief that would have had Artur Brouc been standing behind them.
There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before James will become the next Celtic number 1 but I think he could do wonders for Lennon’s new Celtic and give the defenders a confident strong character behind them to help build their own confidence.
Having Sol Campbell just in front might also just help the cause.
Good keeper yes, but at 39 years of age and likely to command a sizeable salary, is he the long or even short term answer?
Why let Boruc go and bring in James who undoubtedly will be on higher wage?
sign James up ………….how old is Edwin at Man Utd
Anybody got any ideas if any TV channel have picked up the rights for next Wednesday’s Champions League 3rd Round Qualifier between Portuguese runners up SC Bracga and Celtic. The game (28th July) kicks off 7pm UK time.
Hopefully SKY or ESPN pick it up and not the BBC because I don’t think I could handle Dougie Donnelly, Craig Patterson and Billy Dodds spend the whole build up talking about Rangers before cutting to the Celtic game.
Well it’s the Champions League, so naturally you would mention the Champions!
Dubby, are you sure it’s 7pm UK time? We checked a few places online and the time in Portugal is in line with the time in the UK at the moment. This would make it an 8pm kickoff time.
The Celtic website says 7pm… just checked the Braga site.. They say 8pm…
Looks like Celtic might have this wrong as there is no time difference with the UK and Portugal at the moment.
WeKnowSFA 1 Celtic 0
We’re gutted at only sticking one past that shaky defence!
Celtic have just announced that they are playing Blackburn Rovers on Sunday 8th of August at 3pm.
This game is free for Season Ticket holders.