Thatcher will have until Tuesday the 12th of September to answer to the FA. It will be interesting to see whether he will try and plead his innocence against, what is virtually an indefensible act or whether he will accept what he did to try and get off a bit lighter. According to his team-mate Richard Dunne, Thatcher hasn't been able to speak to anyone since his act of thuggery so maybe he does feel guilty about it but that should still have no effect on what punishment Thatcher will get.
Like I said before, anything less than a 10 game ban will be a disgrace. Remember two seasons ago when David Prutton recieved a 10 game ban for lashing out at an offical? I think we all agree that Thatcher's assault was much worse than that so in theory he should recieve a ban longer than 10 games. I would like to see him banned for the season, that would be justice in my view.
For the time being, Stuart Pearce has suspended Thatcher until an internal investigation is complete within the club. Fair play to him for coming out practically straight away and saying that the challenge couldn't be defended after seeing it on replay. Pearce did come in for a bit of stick in his initial interview, claiming that "sometimes players mistime their tackles" and if he had said that before many of us had seen the replay of the incident then I don't think we would have batted an eyelid.
Thankfully, Pedro Mendes shouldn't have any long term damage from what he says is "the worst thing that has ever happened to him in his career." I don't think we will see him for a while yet, so once again I wish him a speedy recovery.