As compelling as today's drama surrounding Anfield is how it's being perceived around England. If today's layouts from England's most prominent papers are any indication, there is a bit of caution to the coverage - perhaps an latent feeling that we might not be as close to closure as Liverpool's announcement hints?

Let's start with the NPR of British coverage, the BBC:

Straight-forward, unimaginative: Disappointing. I can feel my inner-monologue switching to Terry Gross.

Let's spice it up a little bit and see what Sky Sports has to say:

As long as an aging, under-performing icon approves the move, there's really no need for the courts to get involved.

If we're going to go lunacy, might as well go straight for the Daily Mail:

No!  No, no no!  Sanity? Straight-forward reporting? An opportunity wasted, Mail Online. Surely some baiting of the anti-U.S. factions of the footballing public is in order?

As along we're going sane, may as well go to the Guardian who, unlike some of the above outlets, has the coverage on the front page:

It's a question that Reds will be asking themselves for some time, as saving Liverpool this season looks out-of-the-question. Speaking of questions, could the Guardian have found a more type-ing picture than a rich American businessman with a disproportionately large cee-gar raising his hand in triumph after a baseball game? If only Henry's fist was clenched around a Remington.

Let's see what some of the Guardian's competitors did, starting with the Telegraph:

All the reaction? And I thought this post was somewhat original.

We could get The Times' take, but ...

This is all we can see on the wrong side of their pay wall (hey Times, hook an editor up!).

The Independent takes a different route:

Oh, yeah.  There's that.  The whole "is it legal" thing.  We'll cover that more, but first, let's see how the Liverpool Echo's handling the story:

The Echo heralds Broughton heralding, though again on the right, the question: Who is John Henry? These papers may as well ask the real question on more Liverpudlians' minds: Is John Henry different than Tom Hicks? Probably doesn't help that they're two older, white businessman who owned baseball teams and have a couple of the most American (yet English) sounding names you'll find in this country.

And finally, a healthy reminder from the blog-o-verse, courtesy of The Gaffer at EPL Talk:

And when that beard talks, I listen.

All screenshots were taken at roughly 9:30 a.m. PST on Wednesday, October 6.