THE sight of David James thwarting the new demigods of Chelsea on Sunday is unlikely to cure the myopic revisionism that has seen him condemned as Calamity James, the Spice Boy with the Game Boy and the Teflon gloves.
“Damnation will follow him to the end of his days,” Eduardo Galeano, a Uruguayan novelist, wrote of goalkeepers and, at times, the Manchester City man must have felt that would be a fitting epitaph for his bruised reputation.
Yet the truth is that, since he was dropped by England after last September’s shambling display against Austria, James has been in redemptive form. He has conceded 14 goals in 15 league matches and been instrumental in ensuring that only Chelsea and Manchester United have managed better defensive