The Nick Townsend Column: The Ronaldo and Drogba Show: how panto villains turned award nominees

And so, we depart 2006 embracing two names which have illuminated the national game; a duo who six months ago would have beenthe most unlikely to be commended for awards, other than perhaps El-Hadji Diouf. Could anyone have seriously imagined that Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba, once notorious as practitioners of the game's darker arts, would have been vying for the bookies' favouritism as Footballer of the Year? Yet they are, and clear of the field too - one which includes such names as Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Michael Essien.

But isn't it one of the gloriously compelling aspects of sport, making fools of those who have the temerity to forecast the fates of performers and teams? We overlook the fact that personalities are transformed, by peer as much as public and media pressure, and that individuals are capable of evolving into team players, as we have witnessed with the Portuguese winger.

It has been that kind of year, one in which, 12 months ago, the combined soothsaying prowess of Old Moore's Almanac, Nostradamus and Mystic Meg could not have predicted particular events, and their respective fall-outs. Pakistan going AWOL after being accused of ball-tampering; Rooney's dismissal after being deemed guilty of balls-stamping?; or "Golden Balls" being discarded by Sven Goran Eriksson's successor, Steve McClaren. One could go on.

Which is why we hesitate to be dogmatic about how the complex strands of competition in 2007 will unravel - even when undertaking the apparently facile task of nominating Australia and New Zealand as this year's cricket and rugby union World Cup victors respectively. For England, in all three major sports, their progression will depend as much on the medical as the coaching specialists. There is every significance in the fact that rugby's world champions, now under Brian Ashton, have lost 60 per cent of their matches in Jonny Wilkinson's absence. The Newcastle Falcon will not be hurried back after suffering a lacerated kidney, but England will need his leadership and midfield vision if they are to maintain any chance of retaining their World Cup status, even if the talismanic fly-half never recovers his physical prowess of old. In reality, though, England must surely bowto Ireland as the one European nation capable of impeding the progress of the irrepressible All Blacks.

Before that tournament in September and October, there will be an initial test of Ashton's coaching acumen when it comes to selecting his first teams without Wilkinson or Charlie Hodgson, although the Six Nations fixture compilers have been generous with home games against Scotland and Italy before England confront Ireland in Dublin.

Similarly, England cricket desperately requires the influence of Michael Vaughan, though whether that knee will withstand the examination of international cricket appears doubtful. Belatedly, Andrew Strauss should assume the captaincy.

Andrew Flintoff's spirited words of defiance after his side's craven Fourth Test defeat and Ashes surrender, contrasting with a previous year of deification, could only be admired. However, on the pitch all the evidence demonstrates that the team's leadership should be in other hands if the optimum is to be induced from the all-rounder.

As indeed should be the team's selection policy. In England's other major sports, events in Australia would be sufficient for the architect to depart with his drawing board, or in Duncan Fletcher's case, with his bowling plans, immediately after the Fifth Test. But it may require failure in cricket's Caribbean World Cup in March and April to hasten that departure, and a much-needed overhaul of the system.

What should have been a quiet year for their football counterparts, who require only qualification points to confirm their participation in the 2008 European Championships, has become rather too problematic. In fact, delete that word "only". The most pressing concern is identifying the most effective forward accomplice for Rooney. When they need a fit Michael Owen, England have a still-recovering-from-surgery Owen who, like rugby's Wilkinson and cricket's Vaughan, seems unlikely to recapture the powers of his pomp. Andy Johnson and Jermain Defoe - the latter, we should not forget, ignored almost contemptuously by Eriksson when selecting his World Cup squad - still have to demonstrate they possess genuine international quality. Peter Crouch has scored consistently, though generally against weaker opposition, but he looks an appropriate component of Plan B rather than a pivotal member of the first-choice XI. It has meant that a great deal of faith is being placed in Dean Ashton, but the West Ham man is still unproven and some way from recovering fully from a broken ankle. One suspects that McClaren's team will still progress to the finals, but not without some torment inflicted on the national psyche.

By then, we shall know the destination of the title and the Footballer of the Year. You detect that the power balance is shifting subtly towards Sir Alex Ferguson's men, and where the individual vote by the football writers is concerned, Ronaldo in particular. The Portuguese trickster, who has been fired by the hostility towards him following his perceived contribution to Rooney's World Cup sending-off, has not just enhanced his attacking repertoire since then, but confirmed himself as fully receptive of his manager's team ethic.

All straightforward really. Except that, as we have learnt over the last 12 months, sport is rarely that obliging.

Cry of desperation - shop until you don't drop

Chelsea and Manchester United will be searching for over-priced designer labels. So, too, Arsenal and Liverpool, Tottenham and Newcastle. For the remainder, the next 31 days will be ones of being first though the doors of the January sales, ready to barge past fellow shoppers for the bargains.

And, by the way, hands off mine - which is the likely retort from Manchester City's Stuart Pearce (to those who covet Micah Richards and Joey Barton) and Fulham's Chris Coleman (ditto Luis Boa Morte).

Desperation rules at all levels. Chelsea, with a defender as cover for the injured John Terry (Richards?) in mind, and United, still hankering after Owen Hargreaves, are prompted by pride and status; Liverpool and Arsenal by the fear they could be pipped to the Champions' League by Bolton or Portsmouth, whose managers' fascination for foreign bazaars is well known.

Spurs, Everton, Newcastle and Villa will try to invest to secure a European place. But otherwise the fight is for survival and that £30m-plus TV money. When those managers talk about getting down to PC World, it stands for Premiership Consolidation.

Yet, even if they secure their targets - and some lower League players and clubs could be laughing after the spending blitz - just how much effect will it all have?

Last January, among notable transfers were West Ham's purchase of Dean Ashton; Wigan's of Paul Scharner; Portsmouth's acquisition of Sean Davis, Pedro Mendes and Noé Pamarot; and Blackburn's permanent signature of on-loan David Bentley. But not that much else of note.

This year you sense hysteria may erupt. There's even a voice from the managerial grave. Charlton's man of 41 days, Les Reed, declared in Wednesday's programme (printed before his departure) that he hoped for "new blood and fresh faces". Spooky. One can assume he did not have Alan Pardew in mind.