Perhaps Liverpool Football Club's woes have been a little exaggerated of late, with the Hicks/Gillet saga and speculation over Rafa Benitez's tenure at the club rife.
But Liverpool face a potentially traumatic, make or break week. Tonight they face French firebrands Lyon at Anfield, and on Sunday, they face Manchester United.
A loss in the Lyon game would be bad, a loss to Manchester United would be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.
Manchester United fans remain cautious about throwing down predictions and gloating at their beleaguered rivals. One told us:
"We were full of it last time and they flogged us. We're gonna tread a bit more carefully this time."
To heap irony on irony, the main reasons for Liverpool's concern in the Manchester United fixture are Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen.
Rooney is a Scouse Evertonian. Owen is ex-Liverpool.
One Liverpool fan vowed to take a dump into an empty coffee cup and lob the contents at United fans in the Anfield Road end.
"Tell me something new," Jarbo the Killer, a Man United fan from Lower Broughton, Salford, told us. "They never change. The dirty Scouse bastards."
More matchday mayhem as we get it.
