Luis Suarez and Searching for the Right Reaction

First came the snark. That was the best. Then came the sadness, anger, and disappointment. That was not quite as fun. Then the smugness from sections of the British press, gleefully pointing out that Luis Suarez had turned to the very same media he had condemned just a few short months ago as making his life in England untenable. That was the worst. From laughter to sadness to anger to sneering, the period immediately following the confirmation that Suarez is looking to leave Liverpool was frantic and confusing, but we're pretty much in the same spot we were before.

We know that Luis Suarez is a terribly talented footballer, one of the best twenty or ten or five in the world, depending on the imaginary scale you find most convenient and worth arguing about with someone else. We know that he's a handful to defend, both for the opposition and his own teammate, given the twists and turns of physics and conduct he's displayed throughout his career. We know that we've been willing to do some twisting and turning our own--some moreso than others--to excuse his indiscretions. And, after his explosively exploding exclusively exclusive logical roller coaster of an interview with The Guardian, we know what we've mostly known all summer--he's not long for Liverpool.

The lack of a revelation doesn't leave the situation devoid of emotion, of course--I'm firmly entrenched in a f@#k this guy let him rot on the bench no without a hostage there is no ransom that's what ransom is those are the f@#@ing rules place and am feeling quite comfortable here, so it's doubtful that I'll be leaving anytime soon. Sad, disappointed, angry, relieved, whatever, it's all justified. Except the told you so sneering from the press. That's no good for anyone.

What the lack of newness does mean is that any sort of reaction is only going to be temporary, intense as it may or may not be, before we slide back down to reality. There's no revelations or brand-new insights. This isn't suddenly an indicator that Liverpool are suffocatingly average, or that Luis Suarez is not the angel we'd hoped he was. That evidence was in plain sight, as much as we might have wanted to twist or turn away from it, for the past four seasons that the club have been out of the Champions League and the two-odd season Suarez has been around. Liverpool are paying the unfortunate price for years of mediocrity, and likely aren't completely faultless in this situation anyhow, and Suarez isn't quite as loyal to the club as it--or at least its supporters--have been to him.

That's not groundbreaking, and neither are the conclusions being emphatically drawn in the hours since his interview ran--players are mercenaries that deserve whatever they want, clubs are powerless, clubs are powerful, Champions League football is important, contracts say stuff that people should read, head nods and handshakes are not quite contracts, Lucas is probably Jesus, Luis Suarez is probably not, good players want to go to good clubs, agents are awful, the British press is as bad as you thought it was and yet you'll still come back, and football is a business.

Oh, you didn't you know?