Pompey Cancel James Offer
Portsmouth have confirmed that they have cancelled the contract offer they made to England international goalkeeper, David James.
James was one of the highest profile players left at the club and he was even being tipped to stay on at the club to become a coach and a manager at some point in the future.
However, it appears that James' agent and members from the club could not reach an agreement and the player is now talking to Celtic about a possible move to go and play in the Scottish Premier League.
James had a number of positive attributes that would have been key for Portsmouth next season. They will now miss out on the value of these and it's important to look at how it could have an impact on the club in the Championship.
Value
James was a tremendously valuable player for Portsmouth. He has more experience than many goalkeepers will ever have during their careers. He has represented a whole host of Premier League clubs from West Ham United to Liverpool and he built up a priceless knowledge during these club years.
James is still a very good goalkeeper and this is something that a lot of people ignore because of the fact he is nearing 40 years of age. He can still spring across goal and make vital saves and his experience allows him to get into good positions.
He was a central figure in the Portsmouth team and a good leader. He had leadership qualities, which were vital last season when the club was embroiled in financial troubles.
Portsmouth Chief Executive David Lambitt said: "It was a tricky situation. Steve Cotterill and I discussed it at length. From my point of view, we did our absolute best in trying to keep him. I would have loved for him to stay at the club. We had various meetings with him and the process went on for quite a long time. The difficulty for us is that we have got to resolve our goalkeeping situation."
Next Season
Portsmouth are now getting ready for life in the Championship, which is a very competitive and aggressive league. They will have to make someone number one but they could take a while to settle down into the side.
This means that Portsmouth are candidates to concede a few goals at the start of next season because they do not have a big, talented goalkeeper who can keep them in games.
Lambitt added: "It got to a point where we needed to have some certainty with only three weeks to go until the new season and we need to look at other options. We kept the offer open for as long as we reasonably could to try to give us the best opportunity of retaining him. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened."
Advice
Despite all of the problems that Portsmouth had last season and still have now, they should survive in Championship football. It's naive, however, to expect them to bounce back into the Premier League because this is just not going to happen.
You can bet confidently next season if you expect Portsmouth to let slip a few goals. They will not be able to attract the key sorts of players needed to keep things tight all of the time but they do have enough quality in the squad to make sure they do not get humiliated by other Championship sides. A good option could be to wait and see how they play their first few league games of the season before you start backing the team and key players.
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