James is hoping he will return an improved player. "The whole idea of the move was to go and play regular football and work on the technical side of my game, " he told www.southendunited.co.uk , "playing a different style of football will be good and it should be a worthwhile experience. It will be a big step up and different because of the lifestyle, but I don't want to treat it as a holiday as I would like to go and improve myself. The management will be coming out regularly, (I bet they will!), to see how I am doing which is important to me".
In all seriousness, well done James and good luck. This co-operation between the clubs has started well and can only be have a positive effect on promising players from the Blues Centre of Excellence.