The ex-England international has a number of clubs from down south on his CV and only ventured outside of his homeland with Icelandic side IBV and Indian outfit Kerala Blasters at the end of his career.
After leaving City in 2006, the experienced shotstopper joined Portsmouth on a four-year deal, continuing to perform to a high standard in the Premier League and winning the FA Cup.
It was when his contract was ending on the south coast that Neil Lennon got in touch to try and entice him to Parkhead.
With an one-hour flight to Glasgow, James felt it was actually an easier commute than the one he did from Devon to Portsmouth and was interested. However, he blames EasyJet for the transfer happening as their flights were not at convenient times.
The retired star told the Daily Record: "This sounds really bad. So at the time I was at Portsmouth, I actually lived in Devon.
"So I was driving two and a half hours each way, three days a week, staying up nights before games and stuff like that. So it wasn't like I was driving up on a match day. And for the best part, it worked.
"But I'm sure sports science would say, it's probably one of the worst things you could do, but it worked that I had this long drive, and my performances generally were very, very good.
"I was offered the chance to go to Bristol City, which was an hour away from where I lived. I was also offered the chance to go to Celtic, and from Exeter Airport to Glasgow, it's a one-hour flight.
"And I looked and I thought, I could actually just fly up. But unfortunately, the flight at the time to Glasgow was in the afternoon, and the flight back to Exeter was in the morning. So it was completely the wrong way around.
“It would have meant moving up to Glasgow, which I wasn't prepared to do. I would have loved to have played in Scotland, in the Scottish Premiership.
"And I would love to play in the Old Firm derby, that's for sure. But unfortunately, it didn't work out.
“But I got to go and play in the Championship again, which was interesting. You can blame EasyJet for not having an early flight to Glasgow.”