Christmas has always been a special time of the year at Leyton Orient. We are, after all, the only club to have had a Christmas carol written in our honour, thanks to the three kings, writes Fan’s View columnist Martin Strong.

And there have always been strong rumours that Santa picked red as his colour in recognition of his favourite football team in east London.

Sadly though in 2016 it is not a time of cheer at Brisbane Road. Just three years ago as we stuffed our turkeys and ate our mince pies our club stood proudly at the top of the table in League One, and we anticipated watching Championship football.

Alas, this year we stand 45 places lower than we were in those days under Russell Slade. All we want for Christmas is a guarantee of league football come August.

And in these dark and dismal times, when it should be all hands on deck to get us out of our predicament, where is our Italian saviour? Remarkably he has totally disappeared. There currently appears more chance of seeing a Jordan Bowery goal than there is of seeing Francesco Becchetti at the Matchroom Stadium.

I’ve heard rumours that he has gone back to Italy to sit his UEFA coaching badge so that when he gets rid of Andy Edwards and Danny Webb in February, he will be fully qualified to come back and manage the side. As yet though, that is unsubstantiated.

Another source, however, told me he has got another job which will keep him occupied up until Christmas Eve which involves pulling a sledge with the help of reindeer.

Apparently, he was spotted at Heathrow boarding a plane up to Lapland at the beginning of December, along with his helpers Alessandro Angelieri and Vito Miceli.

If this is true I’m sure he’ll be down the chimney of Alberto Cavasin with an English dictionary on Christmas Eve, and he’ll have a book on kick-boxing ready for the home of Andy Hessenthaler.

I’m also sure he’ll have a present or two in his sack for Scott Kashket. Maybe he could drop road atlases down the chimneys of all our fans too so that we know the route to Solihull, Sutton and Southport next year.

We can all only hope he is back for the Crawley game on Boxing Day ready to serve up our Yule time entertainment as he did with Hess at the Portsmouth game on the same day last year.

At least we know if we win we can go up a massive four places for a few hours anyway, with our early kick-off on Monday, which should be incentive enough for the lads going into the match.

There were rumours that Michael Collins was unable to take his place on the bench after he had apparently fallen while getting off the team coach before the game.

That just about sums up the year we’ve had at Orient. Dismal and chaotic.

If you need cheering up over the holiday period, then how about investing in a copy of my recent book: Leyton Orient – The Road To Wembley 1967-1999, which traces my lifetime supporting our favourite club. I shall be selling it in the Supporters’ Club before and after the game on Boxing Day or it’s available direct from Amazon (that’s providing Becchetti didn’t leave you a copy from his sack at the bottom of your bed on Christmas Eve, of course).

Have a good Christmas fellow O’s, let’s hope for three points and if Becchetti’s leadership gets you down, just remember we could have Baroness Brady in charge.

Up the O’s!