By Gary Fulcher.

The wait is almost over. Premier League football is back and for the first time in almost three years I’m genuinely excited about what lies ahead for the Reds. We’ve had the Dave Whelan soap opera, the Olympics, a pre-season trip to North America and Europa League qualifiers to occupy our minds since the end of last season (not to mention the insanity that is transfer rumour mongering) but as distracting as some of those were, nothing quite compares to the start of a new footy season.

Liverpool kick of their 2012/13 league campaign with a trip to the Hawthorns to face West Bromwich Albion; 3pm kick off UK time. The Reds have been handed a tough looking fixture list in the opening few weeks of the season with reigning champions Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester Utd making up the opposition for our first three league games at Anfield. Tricky-looking fixtures aside, I’m filled with a mixture of excitement and optimism about what lies ahead for the Reds with a new manager at the helm and a change in football philosophy that sits close to how I’d like my team to play.

The rest of this post is for subscribers only.

[ttt-subscribe-article]