James was described by Tom Finney as "an inspiration" and "pure magic" with his style of play eventually leading to comparisons with Dennis Bergkamp.

[3][4] James started his youth footballing career with local Junior clubs, Bellshill Athletic and Ashfield.

All in all he made close to a hundred League appearances in his three seasons at Starks Park,[6] and was also involved in an incident of shipwrecking in the summer of 1923 when the team's vessel bound for the Canary Islands struck rocks in a storm.

He then fell out with the club firstly over his wages which were at the Football League's maximum of £8 a week, and also due to Preston not always releasing him for international duty with Scotland.

[8] James left Preston for Herbert Chapman's Arsenal in 1929 for £8,750 (£672,000 today), making his debut against Leeds United on 31 August 1929 two weeks before his 28th birthday.

To circumvent the maximum wage rules, Arsenal arranged it so that his employment at the club was supplemented by a £250-a-year "sports demonstrator" job at Selfridges, the London department store.

James had an unremarkable first season at Arsenal, partly due to the recovery from injuries he had accrued at Preston.

Playing so deep as a supporting player, he scored relatively few goals for Arsenal – only 27 in 261 appearances – but created many times that number.

However, as Lambert returned to goalscoring form Arsenal enjoyed a good run to regain ground on leaders Everton.

[5] In 1935–36 James won his last trophy, a second FA Cup winners' medal, when he captained Arsenal to their 1–0 win over Sheffield United.

With age and injuries taking their toll in the last two years of his career, Alex James retired from playing in the summer of 1937.

[2][19] He is mentioned in the lyrics of the 1930s song "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" which was written by R. P. Weston and Bert Lee and originally performed by Stanley Holloway.