A source that has requested confidentiality forwarded this to me last night. And for fear of being put on the naughty list, I dare not reveal his identity:

Dear Santa,

It’s that time of year again. I wanted to thank you for fulfilling all of my wish list for last year. I thought that I might have asked for too much last year with qualifying for the World Cup and getting a good draw on the list along with a marquee win and a shiny new striker. Actually, you really outdid yourself with giving me the emergence of both Altidore and Davies. I've included a couple of pictures that show off the wishes of mine that you've fulfilled.

That brings me to the first thing on my list this year, a healthy team. I know that every team goes through injuries, but honestly, my team is just not deep enough yet to deal with injuries to our top players. Against Spain, I saw what the kids can do against when everyone can contribute. I’d feel much better about things if I had the whole pool to draw from. I’m not sure if you have medical elves to help on this, but I really wasn’t sure how you would fulfill last year’s list either and that worked out.

I’d like a respectable showing in the round of 16. I realize that this is really two wishes in one, but with the draw that we got, getting out of the group is more like a really nice stocking stuffer than a present. I’m sure you understand. I’d love a win, but I think my job is pretty safe with a loss on penalty kicks or something like that game against Germany in WC02.

If I do keep my job past the World Cup, I’d really like a new model of center back. The team has a lot of talent under 25 in just about every position except this one. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the big, physically commanding, set piece target, win everything in the air center backs that I have, but they have their limitations. If you could make a young quicker center back emerge from the pack that can defend large areas of the box and cover for other defenders mistakes, it would give me a lot of flexibility going forward. Then I wouldn’t have to worry that none of my natural left-sided backs under 30 years old can play solid defense for 90 minutes. Maybe I wouldn’t play with a defensive midfielder paired with a box-to-box guy just to close down spaces around our goal. Although I’ll probably still do that. I do love seeing Mikey charging the goal.

Santa, there are so many things that I could ask for, so many things that the team needs. I hope that you see my three little wishes as reasonable requests. As always, your additional generosity is welcome. Also I hope you take into account my gratitude compared to the English when deciding if the FA should be on the naughty list this year.

Sincerely,

Bob Bradley