James believes England have "come on leaps and bounds" since the 3-2 defeat by Croatia at Wembley 12 months ago ended their hopes of taking part in the finals in Austria and Switzerland last summer.

He insists England would not be in the promising position they are in now had they experienced a poor tournament and then had little time for a new coach to put his ideas across before the World Cup qualifiers got under way.

As it turned out, Capello had five friendly internationals in which to experiment before he had to play any competitive matches.

And the strength of the squad he has assembled was evident on Wednesday when, even without eight first-team regulars, England still managed to beat Germany 2-1 in Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

James said: "Things have come on leaps and bounds since the Croatia game. On reflection, it might have been a better thing that we got beat by Croatia.

"I know it sounds a doom scenario but we could have ended up going to the tournament, not performing well and then employing a new manager who would have had no time to turn things around.

"In that little few months run-in to the World Cup qualifiers, Mr Capello had the chance to look at the players he wanted. He has picked players who weren't fancied before - myself included.

"I am looking at a side now that is full of confidence and arguably an appearance in the Euro 2008 tournament, and a bad performance in the tournament, could have been very detrimental long term."

James is a big fan of the straight-talking and no-nonsense approach Capello has brought to the England set-up since replacing Steve McClaren at the helm.

The Portsmouth star said: "As long as you are prepared to accept criticism when he gives it to you, then fine.

"He is very opinionated and there is no way you are going to go away from a training session not knowing what he wants and that is the best way it can be.

"He is so straight. If he doesn't like something, he says so straight away. He said to me in one of the very first training sessions that I was in the wrong position for a corner.

"You think, 'What do you know about goalkeeping?' but he said what he feels and you can't go away thinking, 'What does the manager think?' so everyone knows exactly what he wants and, if you don't do it, it is not as if you haven't been told."

James believes the win in Germany will provide Capello with extra competition for places when the more serious business of the World Cup qualifiers gets under way again in the Spring.

He said: "It was a superb performance. We thoroughly deserved the win. It was a very strong performance.

"The new faces did well. The test was for the manager to pick the right side given eight of the first choice players were out.

"There was still a good balance and again the performance was a good one overall.

"I am not saying none of the players who were out won't get back in the side - but it makes a nice situation for the manager to have a lot more competition which I think English football needs.

"The biggest surprise is that we won a friendly. There have been some results which haven't been great but the performance was spot on and it would have been undeserved to have drawn the game."