James Reflects On City Survival

The disappointment of injuring his anterior cruciate ligament against Southampton threatened to take a shine off his impressive season, but James remained in high spirits, and is already looking forward to playing Premier League football next campaign. 

Reflecting on his time at the Club so far, City’s No.8 said: “I absolutely love it. Since I’ve joined I’ve enjoyed it. Right from the beginning and the fans have been absolutely fantastic with me. 

“We’ve obviously been in the semi-final of the play offs and we’ve been promoted, now we’ve stayed up so it’s a fantastic achievement for me personally. 

“It’s been a fantastic move from Manchester United to this Club. When I signed I knew it was full of ambition and now we’ve just got to retain our Premier League place for many years to come.” 

James’ influence from midfield contributed to what is being labelled as the greatest ever Premier League escape. At the start of April, City were seven points from safety, but after six victories in eight matches, the goalless draw at Sunderland confirmed their status as a top-flight side for another year at least. 

Each City player, including James, had a similar take on how Leicester managed to turn their fortunes around – a continued belief and togetherness among the squad. 

“I travelled up to Sunderland because I didn’t want to miss it,” James added. “I kind of tempted fate a little bit because I had a feeling that we were going to survive on that day. 

“It didn’t do my knee too many favours but I wanted to be there, be around the lads and be a supportive part of the team. It was fantastic, I really enjoyed it and I’m over the moon that we’ve survived. 

“We never lost belief and I don’t think that any of the fans lost belief either, because they stuck with us through thick and thin. 

“We’ve been through some tough times and we always had a feeling that it would come down to the last eight games, but we never thought we’d go on the run that we went on. It’s amazing what one win can do. It just creates momentum and from there we just kicked on.”