The race no-one wants to win

Figures vary from anything to £20 - £60 million when assessing what it is worth for a club to gain promotion to the Premier League. Whatever the exact amount, it's a hell of a lot of money and even without the financial benefit, it is clearly the place that all clubs want to play their football. Whether it's the 'best league in the world' (Gray & Keys, 1992) is debatable, but for any team in England, it's where it's at.

Given the riches and prestige on offer, you'd think the clubs in the division below, the gateway, would actually be trying their darndest to achieve the step up. This season however, as with many before it, you can be forgiven for thinking that no-one actually wants to win the Championship.

Southampton find themselves sitting top on New Years Day - in fairness a position they have held for around three months now. Quite how they have maintained this supremacy, particularly over the past month, is only down to the failure of their rivals to capitalise. The Saints lost their incredible winning home run at the start of December with a below par 2-2 draw with Blackpool. Prior to this, Nigel Adkins' men had won every single St Mary's fixture since an FA Cup defeat to Manchester United no less way back in January. That run has no gone completely with a shocking (to all except Saints fans who saw it coming a mile off, curse you David James) defeat to lowly Bristol City.

The two closest challengers to the Saints are West Ham and Middlesbrough, both of whom had a chance to draw level at the top of the tree with victory in their fixtures, at Derby and home to Peterborough respectively.

West Ham, who in my view should be overwhelming favourites to finish on top with a squad of significant quality throughout, contrived to lose their game at Derby which, following a late equaliser in their previous fixture at Birmingham, kept them at bay for the time being.

Middlesbrough, the beneficiaries of a few late winners themselves, were pegged back by an 87th minute strike to keep the scores level and, although propelling them into the automatic spots, also meant Southampton could breathe again.

The leaders cannot breathe easy for long however. At such a busy time of the footballing year (great, isn't it?!) the games continue to come thick and fast, and surely a continuation of the current stumbling form will surely see a new name on top of the division before too long.

But that's just it - Southampton have been faltering for some time now, and yet they continue to get away with it. Others fail to take the chance, the gap at the top has shrunk but remains. Surely one team must seize the initiative and make 2012 the year they reach (or return to) the promised land.

Whether the one to do it is the Saints, in a repeat of Norwich City's back to back promotion push; the Hammers in an immediate bounceback and a vindication of the money spent over the Summer; or Boro in a move that will excite precisely no-one outside a very small area of the North East remains to be seen. With the failure of any team to open up a mammoth lead, the chance is still there for any number of clubs, perhaps as far down as the likes of Leeds and Derby in 10th and 11th to clinch automatic promotion.

It certainly feels like the opportunity is there for the taking. As B Rabbit knows: if you only get one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, you can either capture it or let it slip. Now is not the time to choke...