Dear Santa – For January I’d Like…

My life is so tedious. I’ve recently written my letter to Santa and sent it off with my wish list telling him what a good boy I’ve been and asking once again for some satsuma’s, a few pennies and a bit of string. My parents always tell me that is what they had for Christmas and how happy they were, so I thought I’d ask for the same and see if they are telling the truth. That said, for good measure I did add a Tag Heuer watch, some more Adidas Gazelles and just in case it was Santa who won the Euro Lottery, an Aston Martin. Why not, they tell me God loves a tryer and lets face it, I’m very trying.

Meanwhile Martin O’Neill gets to have all the fun. He’s written his wish list and will give it to the Aston Villa Santa next week as Randy Lerner rolls (or more appropriately flies) into town.

So there is me worrying about a ball of string and there is O’Neill writing a list that could push Villa towards Europe this season.

Dear Mr Lerner,

For Christmas I would like…………..

Oh if only we could have a little look, just a sneak, as to the sorts of targets O’Neill wants, I’m sure we’d all like to chip in a request or two as well, but I guess we’ll just have to go with the selections from the Villa boss. How dull it will be to see us bidding for the likes of Jermain Defoe, Shaun Wright Phillips, or whoever the heck our manager fancies.

O’Neill has said he is only interested in signing players that will be with Villa long term as he looks to build the foundations to a long term aim – that being restoring Villa to where they were and where they could be once again, the top of the tree, or at least competing at the top.

Lerner will be at the Manchester City game at Villa Park and will also see Villa on the road at Fratton Park as we face high flying Portsmouth a week Saturday.

O’Neill said: ‘Randy Lerner is coming over here next week and during that time we will be having the occasional discussion. I would intend to give him my plan of how we would look to be moving forward in the immediate future. The medium term here is very obviously to try and get back into European football. Randy’s plan would be to bring in players capable of taking us into European football. There will be players I would like to bring in that will be discussed.’

‘I will not buy for the sake of it. If I did do, it would be short-term deals. I can’t imagine myself going and signing someone on a long-term deal whom I didn’t think was what we were looking for over the next three or four years. If it is only short-term people, just to keep us going, then fair enough. Loan signings is another obvious possibility. I will have everything in front of Mr Lerner, saying this is my plan – A, B, and C.’

O’Neill has also confirmed his line of communication will be directly with the club owner and not the new CEO Richard Fitzgerald or Robin Russell the new chief financial officer.

Meanwhile my communications will continue to be with the men in white suits!