The FA could take action against Liverpool's best player? The captain might miss at least another month of action through injury? It could be the end of the world—or at least the season—for Liverpool and won't somebody think of the children? If you squint just right, it could almost be the prelude to a match against Manchester United…
* First off, there's developing news on Suarezgate, as the Uruguayan FA and Uruguay's embassy in London will be backing Suarez in an official capacity during his fight against the charges levelled by England's FA earlier in week. This came after the player returned from international duty yesterday and met with Kenny Dalglish, after which the Liverpool manager once again reiterated his and the club's full, unequivocal support for Suarez in the matter, while publicly worrying that the FA is looking to steamroll Suarez and the club and suggesting they might be less than wholly concerned with delivering a fair outcome.
We still don't know if the word used by Suarez actually was the oft-suggested "negrito," though now we do know that Suarez' homeland support will involve statements that whatever word he did use is a Spanish word that isn't considered offensive in Uruguay by either the Uruguayan FA or Uruguay's government. We also know that however this whole case ends up, it's fair to say that England's FA hasn't handled it especially well, waiting over a month to act before rushing out with an oddly-timed, clumsily-written, and at times downright confusing statement while Suarez was away on international duty instead of with his club.
* About an hour after we indulged in the distraction of a mid-season Rumour Mongering yesterday, news emerged that Liverpool had in fact secured a new player. His name is Seyi Ojo, he moves to Liverpool from MK Dons, and he might be ready for first team action some time around 2017. So maybe not exactly the sort of transfer to get people excited for the second half of the season, but the 14-year-old has already been capped twice for the u16 England team and competes with MK Dons' u18 side, which has all the major news outlets treating it like it's a big deal and he's some kind of budding phnom and so it really isn't at all creepy that we're talking about it no sir not at all oh hi there Mister Wenger. At this rate, by December we'll be talking about 12-year-olds, dude.
* Before the international break, the hope was that Steven Gerrard's ankle infection would react quickly to treatment, allowing him to return to action in time for Liverpool's tough stretch sandwiching two trips to Stamford Bridge around a visit from Manchester City. In the end, not only will he miss this Sunday's game against Chelsea but, at the very least, the next two as well. It turns out that he won't even be able to remove the protective bandaging until next Friday at the earliest, and it won't be until the bandage is off that doctors will determine exactly how long it will take for his ankle to fully heal. In the end, then, "Hopefully in time for Chelsea" has now become "Hopefully before the end of December," and the club would consider any return before the new year to be a positive outcome.
Needless to say, after his last injury led to six months away from the game and fears that he might never play again, these new developments and an ever-lengthening new injury following so close on his return make it difficult to find much to be positive about when it comes to Steven Gerrard's future as a player for Liverpool Football Club.
We'll be back with a special Tea and Crumpets later on to carry you through to the preview on Saturday, but in the meantime, try to remember that the English FA wasn't looking to start some kind of international incident, they're just grossly incompetent…