'This sounds really bad' - David James on his collapsed Celtic transfer and why he blames EasyJet
The legendary England keeper opened up on the transfer near-miss for the first time to Record Sport
David James has lifted the lid on his collapsed move to Celtic in 2010 - and why he blames EASYJET.
The former England No1 was offered a deal by Neil Lennon to make the switch north having spent his entire career down south.
James - viewed as the perfect replacement for Artur Boruc - was out of contract after a memorable four years at Portsmouth.
The ex-Liverpool and Man City shotstopper was initially keen on a move to Parkhead and the chance to experience the Glasgow derby.
But James - who was 39 at the time - was only willing to join the Hoops if he could FLY up and down to training from his Exeter home.
Unsurprisingly, the flight times didn't quite work out and James opted to continue his career in the EFL Championship with Bristol City.
Opening up on the transfer near-miss for the first time, he told Record Sport, via AskGamblers: "This sounds really bad. So at the time I was at Portsmouth, I actually lived in Devon.
"So I was driving two and a half hours each way, three days a week, staying up nights before games and stuff like that. So it wasn't like I was driving up on a match day. And for the best part, it worked.
"But I'm sure sports science would say, it's probably one of the worst things you could do, but it worked that I had this long drive, and my performances generally were very, very good.
"I was offered the chance to go to Bristol City, which was an hour away from where I lived. I was also offered the chance to go to Celtic, and from Exeter Airport to Glasgow, it's a one-hour flight.
"And I looked and I thought, I could actually just fly up. But unfortunately, the flight at the time to Glasgow was in the afternoon, and the flight back to Exeter was in the morning. So it was completely the wrong way around.
“It would have meant moving up to Glasgow, which I wasn't prepared to do. I would have loved to have played in Scotland, in the Scottish Premiership.
"And I would love to play in the Old Firm derby, that's for sure. But unfortunately, it didn't work out.
“But I got to go and play in the Championship again, which was interesting. You can blame EasyJet for not having an early flight to Glasgow.”
Premier League veterans Joe Hart and Kasper Schmeichel have upped sticks for Celtic Park in recent years but there's no hint of envy from legendary James.
The 53-times capped star said: “I played up there when I was with Liverpool. I know what the atmosphere is like there; it's incredible.
"Playing in the Scottish Premiership against Rangers, these are the sort of games, and my old teammate Tony Ward from Liverpool talked to me about it, and said it is unbelievable.
“But there's a part where I look back at my career and I think, well, it's not that I didn't have a decent career and that I needed to play in that. I think that would have been greedy.
“But yeah, I go to Scotland every now and again, up to Glasgow. I know fans on both sides. So yeah, it's something that would have been nice, but, you know, they didn't miss me.”