Christmas Carol – Wish List of supporters – Part III

Hey folks, I'm back again!

After a mini-break, Christmas Carol is back for its third and final part of the series. Having looked at one half of the EPL clubs earlier on, what is to be inferred is that not many of the conjectural wishes can actually happen.

For instance, Liverpool’s hopes of signing David Villa was dealt a severe blow when the striker injured himself while playing for Barcelona against Al-Sadd in a Club World Cup fixture in Japan. In retrospect, that also ended Barca’s hopes of offloading the former Valencia hit man, if they had any, while handing a terrible blow to Spain’s preparations for Euro 2012.

That tells us all about the one thing to be had in mind which is the fact that Santa can only do so much. There are certain months of a calendar year when Santa’s powers account for next-to-nothing. In professional terms, we refer to this period as transfer season.

A fresh transfer window is fast approaching and when the clock strikes 12 and Dec. 31 blossoms into Jan. 1, it not only typifies the beginning of the Mayan year of doom but also indicates that a mad ride is about to begin.

So here is a proposed wish list of supporters of the remaining clubs competing in the Barclays Premier League and folks, do not forget – to write is my job but to encourage is yours. So I request your participation by letting me know about your thoughts in the comments section below.

NEWCASTLE UNITED

Alan Pardew’s boys had a dream start to life in the new season. They were unbeaten for the first couple of months before they ran into tough oppositions. With that said, their current league standing of 7^th place is an excellent ROI, considering they spent virtually nothing on player purchase in comparison with their top-half rivals.

Ba has been splendid for Newcastle

Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye have turned out to be more than valuable acquisitions for this Newcastle squad that is showing no possible signs of weakness following the megabucks departure of Andy Carroll. Tim Krul has been outstanding between the sticks this season pulling off some wonderful saves.

Successive departures of key figures in former captain Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton and Jose Enrique too didn’t shake them off their feet as the Magpies surprised one and all with their performances.

Of late, injuries to captain Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor have weakened the Toon defence, which was evident in the match against Norwich City last week. This has forced Pardew’s hand in giving first XI opportunities to youngsters. But what would the supporters want? One of the two things would be to get back their old St. James’ Park!

History has been…

…rewritten!!

Now that’s one hell of an example of corporate greed! Sure, Mike Ashley was in need of funds, but at what cost? The tradition of a great football club was sacrificed for it.

Another thing of importance is a chance to play in Europe. Newcastle United were regular competitors for the Europe spot (long before Chelsea even came to know about the existence of continental competition!). This was in the nineties. The noughties haven’t been too kind on this club. But will Pardew get the strength and support from Santa? Let’s wait and watch!

NORWICH CITY, SWANSEA CITY & QUEENS PARK RANGERS

The promoted clubs have surprised footballing circles with their achievements till date. I can even go as far as to say that these three may well be the best lot that ever got promoted to the Premier League.

If you think it’s an overstatement, then clearly you have got no idea what it feels like to occupy the 9^th spot, mid-season in the Premier League, when just a couple of years ago you were plying your trade in the League One Championship. Ask Paul Lambert and he will tell you in no uncertain terms what it feels like to have achieved the above mentioned with Norwich City!

Paul Lambert brought back happy faces at Norwich

Swansea City are a bit more than that. Not in the rankings (they occupy the 12^th spot) but in terms of a certain record. And don’t you for one moment think that I am going to tell you about the Swans being the first Welsh club to play in the Premier League since its inception. No!

See, Brendan Rodgers and his boys happen to be one of the three teams who haven’t lost a game at home. The other two are Manchester City and Liverpool. Now, that for me is a huge achievement. Of course, most of it is down to their goalkeeper – Michel Vorm! I can’t describe in mere words how fantastic he has been for the team. And he came to Wales for just £1 million!

Vorm has saved the Swans on numerous occasions this season

Queens Park Rangers, on the other hand, have been up and down a bit. First, there was the issue of ticket-pricing. Then, the now-former owning consortium of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone walked out. In came Tony Fernandes and with him, a sense of satisfaction on the supporters’ faces. Neil Warnock made several acquisitions in the last minute with the sudden influx of cash, most notably Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips for free! Though QPR haven’t quite played to their potential, the game against Man City at Loftus Road sold it for me. The only area of improvement that Neil Warnock would be looking upon is to find suitable replacements for Heidar Helguson, Jamie Mackie and Fitz Hall. All these players are well into their thirties and may find giving good performances day-in and day-out a bit hard.

Tony Fernandes breathed fresh air in to the QPR management

So what would the supporters ask of Santa? First and foremost, to stay up! Then Swansea fans will be hoping that Scott Sinclair and Michel Vorm stay on for another season. Norwich City fans, meanwhile, will be hoping for more goals from Grant Holt and many more victories to give them a good position at the end of the season. I wouldn’t be wrong if I am to suggest that one of their secret desires would be to draw Ipswich Town at home in the fourth round of FA cup, provided both teams progress from the third round!

QPR fans would still be hopeful of a refund on the huge amount that they had earlier paid for their season tickets but should be happy now that they are receiving free vouchers worth £50 from their Malaysian owner!

STOKE CITY

The Potters must have been repenting on the fact that they concentrated on European success a bit too much. Agreed, the further they move up in Europe, the richer the cash reserves are. But, as unfortunate as it is, it has cost them dearly on occasions. If losing to struggling Bolton Wanderers 0-5 and shaky Sunderland 0-4 wasn’t any bad, all their efforts at cracking the round of 32 in Europa League is now worth trash as they have crashed out of the tournament.

So what does it mean to Tony Pulis and his men? Nothing to worry about as Stoke City are still comfortably placed in the 8^th spot of the Premier League table. But at least now they have got to focus on domestic cup competitions, if they wish to play in Europe again.

Tony Pulis

Getting a hold of Peter Crouch is definitely one of the brighter sides of Pulis’ business acumen, but he is still lacking goals up front. If you take a look at the statistics, most of Stoke’s goals have resulted from set-pieces. So their build-up play has been either frustratingly poor or too lackadaisical to be of any threat to their opponents.

Far too many people have been defending Stoke’s performance by saying that they are a different breed of a team. And in that, they also come up with a pretty interesting line. “Stoke isn’t all about Rory Delap’s long throw-ins”. They may be right. After all, they were proved to be right in Stoke’s last home victory over Tottenham. It isn’t about Delap alone. Stoke is also about Ryan Shotton’s long throw-ins!

So that is exactly why I believe that Pulis should dip into the market for another striker. He may be in for a jackpot because if reports are to be believed, Crouch’s former buddy Jermaine Defoe is seeking a closure to his time at Spurs.

Defoe looking to move on?

Maybe, Pulis can persuade him just the way he worked with Crouch. But given Defoe’s love for London, if the reports are true, his most likely destination is going to be QPR, though I don’t see why he would leave a side that is on the up. But if Tony Pulis can pull off a coup, then there is nothing like it.

And that is exactly what the supporters of one of the oldest professional football clubs in the world would want as well… right, Santa?!

SUNDERLAND & WEST BROMWICH ALBION

Steve Bruce’s Sunderland team have been struggl…Whoa…Oh. I’m sorry! Martin O’Neill’s Sunderland look to be on the way up after the tumultuous reign of Steve Bruce came to an end earlier this month. Bruce’s period at the Wearside saw them win just three home games in the entirety of 2011! That’s a ridiculously poor portfolio for any manager.

I’ve to say I wasn’t one bit surprised when Bruce brought in a load of old-timers from the Man Utd bench. After all, Bruce was a man of his word and by the looks of it, he did give his word to quite a few of them during his time at Old Trafford!

So the comeuppance of buying squad members from a top team was that they refused to get out of the rotation mentality. Which means, either they were injured half the time or didn’t produce the goods when asked to. Perhaps the reason lies in that they weren’t expected to perform at their old club too!

But O’Neill’s arrival was a reason for much cheer amongst the Black Cats supporters not because of his boyhood connections with the club but because of his ambitious announcement that he intended to bring the “Barcelona style of play” to Sunderland. Now I’d say that really is an overstatement. I’d much rather prefer clubs create their own identity (Stoke City, anyone?) than try to imitate another style.

O'Neill tasted success in his first match in charge at Sunderland

I’m sure the first thing that O’Neill would look to do is to find two good defenders and to replace and relegate Wes Brown and John O’Shea back to the bench where they belong. He should also take a call on the status of two key players. First, Lee Cattermole – he needs no introduction. The former England under-21 man is the captain of the team but really hasn’t contributed anything worth close to a penny for its sake. Clearly, Sunderland lack a leader because the one that they have is fine with watching matches from the side line more than once!

The other one is Asamoah Gyan. Now that it’s clear he has no intention of coming back in January, O’Neill should try and recover most of that £8 million that they spent on him come July and offload the Ghanaian international as early as possible.

An honourable mention should also go to Nicklas Bendtner because, despite having Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan and the likes knocking on his doors, he chose to come to Sunderland because he wanted people to know that he STILL was the BEST in the WORLD no matter wherever he plays. So O’Neill should look into that as well, I believe!

West Bromwich Albion looked like they were heading for a solid season from their opening fixtures against tougher oppositions. But, just like their gaffer, the Baggies too have slipped down the radar and are consistently losing or salvaging draws in their games. This really isn’t a good sign.

Shane Long has been exceptionally good for them, creating goal mouth chances but not able to pounce on them. He’ll improve as he gets more and more playing time. Chris Brunt, the skipper and Paul Scharner have been a tall presence in the midfield. Peter Odemwingie is getting back to the form that made the other clubs sit up and take notice last season.

What would the fans want from Santa? It’s a simple one. Sunderland would want to stay clear of the drop-zone, achieve a decent finish this season and then look to build on from there.

West Brom's "GREAT ESCAPE" in 2005

West Brom supporters would want their team’s bad patch to end as soon as possible to avoid a situation like the GREAT ESCAPE that has become a folklore legend of recent times!

TOTTENHAM HOTSPURS

Spurs have had an excellent first half so far. I think most of their success is down to the fact that they picked it up right from where they had ended their journey last season. Not only did they manage to keep hold of stars like Luka Modri? and Gareth Bale, they also brought in experienced players like Scott Parker and Brad Friedel.

So the North-London club find themselves in the automatic CL qualification berth with just a mere seven points separating them from the Manchester clubs, having played a game less. Harry Redknapp’s realistic target should be to get back in the Champions League but if results continue to be this positive, he wouldn’t mind having a go for the league title.

They were on an 11-game unbeaten streak until recently when they were grounded at the Britannia stadium by referee Chris Foy. We all know what kind of a trauma it gave for British Olympian Sir Chris Hoy, who had been mistaken for Foy, as outraged fans treated him with elite industrial terms on popular social networking site Twitter!

But that embarrassment was followed by another as they exited the Europa League despite downing Shamrock Rovers. Redknapp, however, should consider it a blessing in disguise as his team can now focus on the league and FA cup competition.

Redknapp is sure that his side is now a "FAB 5" side!

Spurs’ transfer activity will be interesting as a few reports suggest they may move for Didier Drogba in January and are believed to be monitoring the veteran Chelsea striker’s situation at Stamford Bridge. This in retrospect implies that Jermaine Defoe’s time at the White Hart Lane is nearing an end. Interest on Luka Modri? seems to have cooled down from Chelsea but we will never know what Manchester United is going to come up with. But if they didn’t let him go for the alleged £40 million that was offered back in August, then they are surely not going to let him go for anything cheaper than that in January. Gareth Bale’s situation is on tricky terrains as rumours of interest from FC Barcelona seem to be increasing by the day.

So what are the wishes of the Lane faithful? Well, a CL place to begin with and, if possible, the FA Cup. A wish for the league title may be considered as going overboard but who knows what Santa has in store?!

Oh, and by the way, they would also want to ask Santa that Harry Redknapp remains in charge at the end of current season as they wouldn’t be all too willing to let go of their gaffer for the England manager’s job that he has been associated with!

WIGAN ATHLETIC & WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

Roberto Martinez and Mick McCarthy find themselves in a similar situation to the last season. Both clubs are in danger of getting relegated from the top tier of English football. Wigan are in the drop zone while Wolves are in the 17^th place with strong possibilities of dropping into the zone!

Wigan’s chairman Dave Whelan publicly stated that he wouldn’t think twice to sack Martinez despite the fact that they share a good working relationship. Whelan need not act in haste here because Wigan have a greater tendency to perform better when it comes to relegation battles unlike the other clubs.

Martinez's side is in crisis

And so is his. Biting your nails clean off isn't a solution though!

Martinez should consider himself lucky as, unlike Mick McCarthy, the crowds haven’t been all too hard on him. Strong and hard boos can be heard at the end of every game in the Molineux showing the supporters’ disregard for the Irish man’s efforts.

McCarthy wanted Jamie O’Hara, Stephen Hunt and Steven Fletcher firing on all cylinders and they have duly obliged. On the other hand, the one person that Martinez would want to start firing in at least a cylinder would be Hugo Rodallega. The Colombian forward hasn’t produced anything remotely close to last season’s form. That is one area where he would like for some improvement.

The fans… just one wish… one more season in the top-flight! Pretty nominal request and I’m sure Santa will move it into his priority list!

To conclude, I suggested earlier that a mad ride is in the works when the January transfer window opens. As the media readies itself for the frenzy and websites increase their server capacity to withstand the incoming traffic, what awaits us is one whole month full of lies, rumours, transactions, photo-ops, shocks, last minute tamasha etc.

Now, that is some action we footie fans would not want to miss. But before we get into a state of hysteria, let’s just savour the holidays and regain our lost energy.

So here I am wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Hope Santa showers you with gifts and his blessings. And remember to enjoy the game responsibly!