David James would welcome his former England boss, Sven-Goran Eriksson, into the vacant Portsmouth managerial post. "Somebody of his calibre would be a tremendous acquisition for us," James said.

"Having a former England manager as manager of Portsmouth I'm sure is something that the fans would never have envisaged."

"Things change very quickly in football," said the 38-year-old.

"Last season we won the FA Cup and people were talking about the Champions League. Now we need to push up the table.

"Fundamentally we are the same side so in some respects it is shocking to see the drastic change in form.

"Sven dropped me a few times, so it would be interesting if he did come in. But when you have players with the ability and quality we have, I think any manager of Sven's high calibre would turn a decent side into a good one again."