Uruguay Backs Suarez, Gerrard Injury Woe, and Other Friday Notes

By: Noel | November 17th, 2011

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…

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Miscellaneous, Premier League, Team News

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Suarez from the car park...

The rules governing the game don't allow you to say anything regarding race or colour hence why the charge is inevitable and a guilty finding could also be a formality depending on what he said / admits to saying.

However given that the context is significant it complicates the matter slightly.

From a South american / Spanish point of view, negrito (if that's what it is about), the context is clearly friendly and respectful not hostile.

From a football / competitor point of view it could be used as a wind up / insult if you know the opponent could be offended with the opposite interpretation of such words when translated to English.

So both contextual propositions are valid. And of course speculation is troublesome.

If Evra speaks Spanish (as I read somewhere), he might actually know it's not an offensive term but wants to cause trouble. But surely that would be exposed pretty quickly.
On the other hand, as I suggested, Suarez might know it could sound offensive in non Spanish countries but thought he was being clever.

So the real questions come down to what he is forced/advised to say in response to the charge, eg can he take the 5th.

But if there's a very bland rule that says no utterance of colour must be made, you can be sure that ManUre will push for punishment and exploit it to the max in the meeja as is the colour of SAF.

One question I had, is when players abuse families of an opponent to wind them up, why is that ok but a racial comment no. I would expect them both to be on the same level. Unpleasant at best.
Purify_the_body

This is not fighting racism, just making the English FA look like a laughingstock and Fergie's pawns.
Luis Suarez Dentist

Kenny Dalglish the greatest player ever to pull on a Liverpool shirt. The last manager to win the league for us. The greatest ambassador the club has. A man who did as much as anybody so support the families after Hillsborough. A man who brought John Barnes to the club when he was a victim of racist abuse. And above all a man of integrity and honesty.

Kenny Dalglish has given his full backing to Luis Suarez.

Forget politics, forget club loyalties, forget the media's desperation to find scapegoats, forget John Terry, forget Sepp Blatter, forget hangovers of failed world cup bids, forget handballs on the line, forget a defender who was frustrated at been twisted inside out and resorted to false claims (not for the first time).

All you need to know is that Kenny Dalglish has given his full backing to Luis Suarez.

Does anyone really think the FA have any footage that hasn't been available to Liverpool FC?

Does anyone really think that Kenny Dalglish would back a racist?

Kenny Dalglish has given his full backing to Luis Suarez.

Luis Suarez is innocent.
Those who doubt the word of Kenny Dalglish should be ashamed of themselves.
lfc80uk

Did anybody hear Kenny's response when a journalist asked him about Suarez after Kenny specifically stated he wouldn't be answering anymore questions on the subject?

"Do you have wax in your ears"

Brilliant!
redtrev73

Saw some reactionary twats who write for other blogs (which I intend to stop reading in the interests of my mental health) talking about how Dalglish "lost his cool" or was "furious".

Honestly makes me wonder what dimension some people exist in. The King retained his composure whilst expressing his irritation with a journalist who was deliberately ignoring his stance of standing by the statement. He even had a trace of a smile as he expressed his concern for the journo's aural welfare.

This man is in a VERY tough spot with the Suarez situation but he is displaying the intelligence, dignity and poise that some idiots have already started to take for granted so soon after the dark days of The Hodge. We're lucky to have Kenny on point for LFC.
Suarez from the car park...

Boy, can you imagine if the Hodge was handling this????? He'd have pronounced Suarez' guilt at the end of the game and then repeated it on every tv and radio station commenting on 'his friend' Alex Ferguson.

Jeez, makes me want to go back to the paper cuts just thinking about it.
lfc80uk

I still wake up with cold sweats thinking about those dark days...
KC

I'm gonna ignore all this and just concentrate on the Liverpool vs Chelsea game. Anyone looking forward to another Agger elbow in the face? :D
Lis

Hmm, how do know what Agger's elbow in your face is like? The rest of us probably haven't been that lucky.
Purify_the_body

Sad when LFC fans don't even know about such a historic moment in the club's history. I guess you can be forgiven since it happened way back in 2011.
Lis

Erm, I was joking, of course I rememeber, I just pointed out that KC's wording made me giggle. He didn't say "another Agger elbow in Torres' face", just "another Agger elbow in the face".
Although when you say it's a historic moment, maybe you're being sarcastic too. I think the win itself was more historic.
Purify_the_body

Phew! I really thought you didn't know what he meant.

Btw last night I found out my friend's wife (who is from Denmark) went to school with Agger growing up. She said he's a super nice guy but she didn't see him too much after age 15 or whenever it was he got identified as a big talent, because he only had to show up at school part-time after that. And she confirmed for me nobody in Denmark ever called him "dagger" like people do online. :)
poorscouserbobby

that's a shame.. I mean who WOULDN'T want to be called Dagger?
Lis

Yeah, sarcastic jokes are sometimes difficult to convey on the Internet.

And that's cool about your friend's wife, it has always seemed to me that he genuinely is a nice, sincere guy.
Suarez from the car park...

love him to bits. He's a class player, a real natural talent. Great Rafa find despite the glass shins.
Lis

Couldn't agree more.
Latortillablanca

re: steven, yuck. again, what are the odds that jamie carragher outlasts steven gerrard as a liverpool player...

re: suarez, not impressed. not impressed with the handling of the situation by the FA, not impressed with a government getting involved in a sports process - it's like when congress stepped in on steroids in baseball... c'mon, dont you have more important things to be looking into? not impressed one way or the other that lfc and uruguayan FA are backing their player - what do expect them to do? indict suarez and suspend him indefinitely?

we'll see the facts when they come, they will come out, then we can judge. but all of this up to now? not impressive. game recognize game and all parties involved in this process are looking mighty unfamiliar right about now...
Suarez from the car park...

I put my take on it above LTB. Institutional rules can be very rigid.

But Gerrard, yes, shitbangcockballs! Can't believe his ankle's caught the plague or glandular fever or something.

I was expecting some groin dong flare ups for the rest of the year, so in some ways he's not missing more than I thought he would, but I'm seriously pissed.

Concerned we're gonna be over run in the middle of the pitch again, while having our wide attacks blunted on Sunday..
Latortillablanca

if they rock meireles/ramires/lampard and we rock lucas/adam, i will be watching the game through my hands. we've got to go 3 men in the center. must.
David Aris-Sutton

@jpr or to put it another way, if you are LFC then YNWA
jpr

Kenny reiterates his and the clubs full, unequivocal support after meeting with Luis upon returning from International duty. "I don't think there is any doubt that any player at this football club who finds themselves in a bit of a bad time is always going to be well looked after by the people here," Dalglish said. "That is a given for this club."

Kenny's continued full and public support speaks volumes for me.