24 March 2008
VIDEO: David James press conference

David James says he is proud to be part of the England setup with the English goalkeeping talent available to Capello.

France v England
International Friendly
8pm, Wednesday 26 March 2008
Stade de France, Paris
Live on Sky Sports

England goalkeeper David James believes that Wednesday’s game with France is a ‘friendly’ in name only, following some dressing room banter with his club mates at Portsmouth.

Whilst James’ Fratton Park team-mate Lassana Diarra is expected to be ruled out of the game at the Stade de France through injury, he didn’t let the big stopper leave for international duty without knowing that this game is being taken seriously by ‘Les Bleus’.

“I was in the shower with Lass Diarra the other day and he said to me about the game and whether I would be playing,” James told TheFA.com.

“He seemed up for it too, so they’re looking at it as a good fixture and that means it will spell out to be a decent test for us.

“There is no such thing as a friendly against France though so we know what it will be like.”

The 37-year-old has already made his feelings clear on how Fabio Capello’s new England regime has impressed him greatly and with no competitive games until the World Cup qualifiers begin in September, James believes that games such as tonight’s and the forthcoming Wembley dates with USA and Czech Republic can all be used for the Three Lions’ benefit.

“I think the silver lining to the cloud of not qualifying is that the manager and the nation have got a few games to work out what we’ve got for the World Cup qualifiers later this year,” he added.

“With Croatia being good enough to beat us on two occasions, it’s important that we don’t let that happen again so a game against France is as tricky as you can get at this stage.

“They will be keen to impress too, with the Championship Finals coming up so soon.

“There are a couple of games lined up over the summer and again, they will be great occasions and an opportunity for the manager to install his beliefs and also to get a feel of what his squad is about, so everything looks very rosy.”

James is the second longest serving member of the squad behind David Beckham and has featured under the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Kevin Keegan, Sven Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren in the past but is still enjoying life in the squad under Capello.

“I think it’s great,” he added.

“It’s easy for me to say that having played 90 minutes in the first game, but I thought it was well organised.

“As a player, I didn’t know that I would be playing until five minutes before we left the hotel, but I was well versed in what was expected of me and I think the whole team was comfortable in that sense, which is good.

“Given that on a number of occasions in the past, the first game of a new regime hasn’t been to public’s wanting, I think it was important that it was seen to be a very well organised set-up.”