PORTSMOUTH goalkeeper David James is hoping his cleansheet defiance of Arsenal will catch the attention of new England manager Fabio Capello.

At 37, the former Liverpool shot-stopper is the most elderly option available to Steve Mc- Claren's successor.

But James, who helped Pompey to a point from a Fratton Park stalemate on Wednesday night, was aware of an important precedent.

He said: Hopefully Fabio Capello will do well for England.

He is Italian - and didn't Italy win the World Cup with a 40-year-old goalkeeper, Dino Zoff?

I always want to be involved with England and wouldn't retire from it. If the new manager fancies it then it would be nice to be in the frame.'' James made it clear he found life under McClaren extremely frustrating as he would be included in squads but hardly ever allowed to play.

The former Middlesbrough boss was sacked as soon as England's failure to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals was confirmed and James was not too sad to see him go.

He said: It was very frustrating for me under Mr McClaren because I played half a game. I wasn't unhappy with my form for my club and wasn't training badly for England so there wasn't an obvious reason for not being involved.'' McClaren's most memorable snubbing of James was his decision to jettison previous firstchoice Paul Robinson for the crucial qualifier with Croatia and then hand the gloves to the untried Scott Carson, who produced a nervous, error-strewn performance in the 3-2 defeat.

James said: I didn't have a problem with Scotty playing against Croatia but the way things panned out I had to ask why things happened like they did for me. All I got was a handshake and a cheese roll.'' England were far better under Sven-Goran Eriksson, James insisted.

He said: He wasn't the most talkative guy but he was fantastic.

Straight, honest and organised.

When we beat Argentina 1- 0 at the 2002 World Cup it felt like England had landed on the moon.

We lost to Brazil in the quarter- finals but it was only one game where we failed. It was the same against Portugal in 2006.

In our last campaign we failed in a series of games. When you lose one qualifier here and stumble there, then it's more than just a one-off thing.''