On the 4th July this year I was among a throng of people stood on the concrete plateau in front of St George's Hall in Liverpool joining a growing voice that wanted to ensure a better future for our club. At that point, it looked like our squad was disintegrating, we were nowhere near finding new owners and the future looked particularly bleak. Whilst the thought of a relegation scrap wasn't mentioned, I did have dark thoughts.
Six weeks later and things have changed significantly. We now know that the sales process is making progress, although maybe not as quickly as we would like, but let's be realistic, it's more important to get the right owners than to get different owners. I don't want to be in the same place 12 months down the line, so I would rather take a couple of extra weeks and get the right investment for the club.
The transfer window so far hasn't been the disaster zone it could so easily have been.The outs have pretty much been the ones that most fans would have allowed to go, and although it still looks like Mascherano will go, out of the three star players rumoured to have been disillusioned at Anfield, he is probably the one that most fans would sacrifice.
Gerrard and Torres have reaffirmed their commitment and on top of that, we have two free signings that would be well worth a few million quid. Milan Jovanovic looks every inch a Liverpool player and who with a Liver Bird on their chest is disappointed at the arrrival of Joe Cole?
In addition we have a new manager. He isn't Rafa Benitez, who built up a tremendous rapport with the fans, but Roy does seem to be saying the right things at the right times and more importantly doing things that we can believe in.
This is our first opening day fixture at Anfield since Gerrard Houllier was in charge and the opponents couldn't be much more difficult. We beat Arsenal in our first home game in 1996 and 1994 whilst in our record breaking season of 1988/89 when we went 29 games unbeaten from the straight of the season, we started with a 2-1 win at Highbury. Two years earlier, the last time we had an opening day game at Anfield against the Gooners, we triumphed 2-0.
So the history books shine brightly on Liverpool today, and, as with all football fans on the first day of a new season, my optimism has returned. Come six o'clock this evening I expect to be sitting proudly at the top of the EPL (OK Chelsea did quite well but they were playi9ng the mighty WBA. we've only got to get past the lowly Gooners).
Hopefully reality won't smack me in the face tonight.
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