Luis Suarez is back in business, whether any of you futbolitinos like it or not! Over the weekend, we spoke to a few Uruguayans about the striker's return to the Premier League and they all shared a similar nonchalant and supportive approach for the Liverpool man.

Just a quick round-up this morning:

Terry will go to the Euros...

• Shambolic! RT @RobHarrisUK BREAKING: England captain Terry not to stand trial on charge of racially abusing opponent until after Euro 2012.

The skinny: John Terry's legal trial regarding his alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand postponed to the week of July 9th.

Liverpool first-team coach Steve Clarke believes the club has collectively accepted the consequences of defeat to Bolton and has already moved on from the misery.
Kenny Dalglish's men were last weekend embarrassed in a dire 3-1 loss at the Reebok Stadium and the manager for the first time turned criticism onto his players.

The Portland Timbers took to the field for their second practice of 2012 today. At Jeld-Wen it was rainy and cold and perfect for football. Lucky for those of us in attendance, we were able to join the players out in the Oregon weather and observe practice.

Drills focused on basic fitness and regaining the touch lost in the soccer-less off season.

My dear beloved Forest, what on earth has happened to us? We used to have such great times and were so happy together and now we just seem to be drifting apart. Your flowing moves used to excite me to the point of distraction, and the climax to those moves was often unbelievable. Your passion and commitment used to warm me on a cold Saturday afternoon when we spent time together, but now your caresses have become cold and uncaring.

My dear beloved Forest, what on earth has happened to us? We used to have such great times and were so happy together and now we just seem to be drifting apart. Your flowing moves used to excite me to the point of distraction, and the climax to those moves was often unbelievable. Your passion and commitment used to warm me on a cold Saturday afternoon when we spent time together, but now your caresses have become cold and uncaring.

Saturday's match against Stoke didn't provide much in the way of top quality individual performances to look back on over the longest break between games in December or January, but amongst the many disappointing showings was yet another quality outing for Martin Skrtel. Six months ago fans impatiently waited for Phil Jones or Scott Dann to arrive on the transfer market and bump the Slovak down the depth chart, and now all the rugged defender does is turn in one man of the match calibre performance after another.

With New Year's come and gone, all Bundesliga teams have ended their brief winter vacation and have traveled to training camps in much warmer climates than Germany. Many teams have already played warm-up test matches and have begun running out their newest winter signings. The second half of the season begins with match day 18 on January 20.

We wanted to talk about stuff that isn't Luis Suarez. We really, really did. But that didn't take into account one inescapable fact: Pretty much nobody is talking about Liverpool without also talking about Luis Suarez. So while the FA Cup draw against Oldham Athletic holds the potential for distraction on Friday, for now at least there's little to do but tie up a few more of the Suarez-related loose ends.

Manchester City 3: Aguero 10′, Y.Toure 33′, Milner 75′
Liverpool 0

Manchester City make the gulf in cutting edge clear at the Eastlands, putting three past Liverpool and pushing themselves ahead at the top. Liverpool looked good for spells, particularly between the first and second City goals, but couldn't do anything with their possession and scarcely threatened Joe Hart's goal.

John Terry's BFF, Wayne Bridge rumoured to be on Wenger's radar

A bridge to nowhere. With Thomas Vermaelen out with a calf strain, there is officially no left back specialist left on the Arsenal senior roster. In the match Wenger subbed off Vermaelen replacing him with Francis Coquelin who looked a bit suspect when tracking back but looked in his element pushing up the channel.

Luis Suarez racism row not a distraction – Liverpool defender Daniel Agger

Whilst admitting Wednesday's 0-0 draw with Wigan was frustrating, the 27-year-old insists his side are fully focused on their football despite the saga surrounding the Uruguayan

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-22 17:55:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Liverpool defender Daniel Agger insists his team-mates are focused on doing their best for the club and not Luis Suarez's situation.
The Uruguay international has been hit with an eight-game ban for a misconduct charge along with a £40,000 fine by the Football Association.
The Liverpool players showed their support for Suarez pre-match against Wigan by donning wearing T-shirts featuring his image on the front and number on the back.

Agger Suarez no distraction

Liverpool defender Daniel Agger insists his team-mates are focused on doing their best for the club and not Luis Suarez's situation.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-12-22 16:09:45 from: Sky Sports

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

When people use the word 'saga', it's usually in relation to a beloved film franchise or some centuries old epic tale, however this saga doesn't take place in a galaxy far far away or in the pages of history, it all started when a world class footballer decided to swap the red half of Manchester for the blue.

‘Oh, is there a match on darling?' It's sweet of Adriana to sound even vaguely excited on my behalf.

It's the first time today that I've thought about football. I've known for a while that I would be working late so I put it to one side, and anyway sitting next to Adriana for the afternoon's meeting is distraction enough.

Kenny Dalglish insists his Liverpool players have not been distracted by off-field issues while preparing for Saturday's visit of QPR.
The Reds' 11-match unbeaten run ended in controversial circumstances on Monday night as Jay Spearing was sent off during a 1-0 defeat at Fulham and, after the match, Luis Suarez allegedly made an offensive gesture to the crowd.

Oliver Holt's Big Match Verdict: Enthralling match at Anfield illustrates the progress of both sides

When the game was over and the players had left the pitch, news emerged from the dressing-room area. Manchester City striker Mario ­Balotelli had slammed a door, we were told.

Takover rumour;Well rumours have to start somewhere and with our history this is more likely than an Arab sheik What a disaster and divisive distraction the Olympic Stadium land grab has been. Now with the accusations about surveillance of the Olympic Committee and the revelations about Karen Brady's phone calls the stinking pit gets deeper and smellier.

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.

By Chris Wright

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has written a book and, from the sound of the quotes that have been drip-dripping for the past few days, it's exactly the kind of book that you'd expect namely, 300 pages documenting his innate greatness and comprehensively listing all the people he wants to kick into the middle of next week.

Enough with the doom and gloom, it's time for the news and notes. See what I did there? Yeah, I know, sorry. Plus one of the items we've got for today involves "Steven Gerrard," "injuries," and "English national team." Which doesn't bode well for moving on from said doom and gloom, but what the hell.

By Chris Wright

Monaco aren't exactly basking in rude health at the moment, languishing down at the arse-end of the French second tier following their relegation from Ligue 1 last season though Marama Vahirua's sublime volleyed goal against Le Mans (to equalise with just five minutes left to play) on Saturday certainly provided a brief distraction from the club's ongoing woes.

Perhaps No. 2 ranked North Carolina was looking ahead to Friday's showdown against No. 3 ranked Maryland heading into Monday night's visit to tiny Davidson College. Whether it was distraction, or just a special team effort by an underdog, the Wildcats took full advantage to knock out one of the country's top teams.

Finest Five member, Aitor Ocio, smiled pretty and did his spokesmanly duty at the CK One 'Shock' launch in Madrid yesterday. We highly recommend taking a moment (or an hour) to look at all of the photos from the launch, they're the best distraction on this Thursday morning. Image Credit: Divinity.

I was just going to do a recap of my All-Time Team tonight but the Denver Post had an interesting article about tension in the Rapids Front Office this afternoon. It seems that Gary Smith is happy to sign a new contract for next year, but not if he has to continue to work with Technical Director Paul Bravo.

Despite the luxuries afforded to professional footballers, and athletes in general, there are certain drawbacks. Like the simple fact that being human is done so in the public eye, as is the case for their family members as well.

Wayne Rooney is, as we all know, more human than most. Turns out it's a family thing.

This season has started ridiculously well and you start to wonder whether it's too good to be true. Five wins in five, despite being presented with a tricky start fixture wise, is a great achievement for the team.

After the standard of our football getting increasingly worse over the past couple of seasons, dragging ourselves through away games and putting ourselves in difficult situations on the road, we're blowing teams away this season.

The second of two must win homes games in a single week is tomorrow night against the San Jose Earthquakes, a team that the Portland Timbers are currently winless against. That's right, those of you who think far back to the Timbers short lived U.S. Open Cup run will remember that the San Jose Earthquakes actually came to Jeld-Wen Field and beat the Timbers for the first time at home.

After a disappointing result against Blackburn at the weekend, the hope is that the Carling Cup will offer a welcome distraction from the travails of the Premier League. Certainly it will be a youthful side put out by Arsenal, but there are a few fringe players in need of game time that will offer experience.

Will Derry City fans have something to celebrate this season?

The title race in the Airtricity League in the Republic of Ireland is reaching a critical stage and looks set to go down to the wire with up to five teams still holding title ambitions.

Derry City (59 points, 30 games) have experienced many difficulties over the last few years but the club is playing well again following their promotion from the First Division (2nd tier) last season.

Firstly, humblest apologies on the scarcity. Exams have been ruining my life for the last two weeks and are set to ruin them for a week more, but then freedom beckons.

Which means of course, that this post is going to be shorter than aaron lennon because the books are calling.

As the title says, a win is a win.

Which England players put in performances worthy of a place against Wales?

Simon Mullock casts his eye over England's starting XI in Sofia and considers whether they are worth a place in the line-up for Tuesday's clash with the Welsh at Wembley. Joe Hart (Man City): His distribution still drives Fabio Capello to distraction, but Hart is still out on his own when it comes to keeping the ball out of his net.

Stuart Pearce has conceded Jordan Henderson was 'on his knees' when playing for England at the European Under-21 Championship in the summer.
Henderson has been handed the captain's armband for England's bid to qualify for the 2013 tournament after struggling to make an impression during this year's competition in Denmark.

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce has labelled the transfer window "hugely disruptive and a massive distraction" but admitted there is no realistic alternative to the current system.

Why Warnock's wrong about the Carling Cup and Twitter cowards get my goat plus my new tattoo

Shamoe on the managers who treat the Carling Cup as a second-class pot and claim they are glad to be out of it. Neil Warnock, who has never won a major trophy in his life, reckons QPR are better off without the distraction of the Carling Cup after they were humbled by Rochdale.

By Joe Milford

The time is now for Arsenal's supporting cast to stand up and be counted

There's never an easy was to say goodbye is there? Be it with friends, classmates, and yes, even our favorite players, letting go is something that's hard to do, particularly when what you are letting go of is something special.

Samir Nasri finds a clever way to hide from Arsenal fans

Here is news that is further distraction to Arsene Wenger and effectively puts the lid on any more transfers into the club.

Samir Nasri might not an Arsenal player come Monday but there are reports suggesting he will be included in the squad to play Liverpool tomorrow.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp is targeting multiple signings after conceding that Luka Modric's long-drawn transfer saga could soon be concluded.

Modric has drawn strong interest from Chelsea throughout the summer and the lure of joining a bigger club has already proved to be a major distraction for the Croatian.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Bye weeks don't get much better than the one the Los Angeles Galaxy just had.

Despite not playing a minute, the Galaxy watched its three chief competitors fail to secure wins while adding Robbie Keane to the fold. Seattle and Dallas each played to draws, and Real Salt Lake fell to Toronto, allowing the Galaxy to fortify their stronghold on the top spot in both the race for the Supporters' Shield and the SBI MLS Power Rankings.