Normally, when you're a Liverpool fan and you're watching a never-ending transfer saga, it involves a player repeatedly and often lazily being linked to the club. An Arda Turan or Asmir Begovic or whichever one of the 37 La Masia graduates isn't getting enough starting minutes at Barcelona this week.
Thanks to Fabio Borini, though, we all get to be on the other side of one of these things for once, as struggling Sunderland are again being linked to him after a summer spent trying to get the 23-year-old Italian to sign on. Given he was key in salvaging their season last year, that they might want him back makes sense.
Given that they spent the entire summer trying to get him to sign on without luck and that the striker still seems set on heading to a club with silverware potential if he's to give up on making things work at Liverpool, it might be time for Sunderland to move on anyhow. And, of course, they may have already moved on.
As Liverpool fans well know, all because you're getting linked to that player you've been linked to again and again and again in the past doesn't mean there's really any interest there. Usually it just means it's a slow news day, perhaps during an international break, and people who provide footy content are getting desperate.
Given Borini still appears out of favour, though, and that even Daniel Sturridge's extended absence didn't lead to a real chance to impress with the first team—or that when it did, as against Madrid, it appeared not to matter how well he played—it's always possible January is when Borini finally gives up on his Liverpool dreams.
No matter how commendable his determination to make things work at Liverpool might be, there comes a time to move on. And if you're Fabio Borini and can't get a fair shot this season despite the club's troubles, Sturridge's injuries, and Mario Balotelli's ineffectiveness, that time might finally have arrived.