As Liverpool welcome a new manager to signal a new era for the club, Anfield is ready to embrace the future…

IT felt like the longest interregnum you could imagine.

Morning.

We’re back, then. In all the ways.

It occurred to me a few weeks back I had been neglecting you all; treating these emails with the sort of indifference my LinkedIn has had to put up with for years.

Then I wondered – does it matter? Scary thought in general, but in this particular instance what I meant was there isn’t reason or point for a while.

I mean, I could have banged out 500 words on why the Ian Maatsen deal was perfectly reasonable (Villa have done well out of their PSR mates – you need to keep an eye on them), but it wasn’t what I would call essential.

Instead there was a red letter moment on the horizon. The end of the summer tournaments. That was always going to be the start of something, the start of the new thing, the cool thing, the exciting thing.

I’ve written a book while I wasn’t writing to you, but the book is me writing to you as well. The book is for and about you, but it is also about the importance of renewal, a rejection of nostalgia, a paean for togetherness and a reminder of the value of visceral thrill. The moment is the only thing worth living in – the moment is the gift.

When writing the book the word “gift” just kept coming up. It was a subconscious not stylistic choice and then the moment of realisation that it was there and the why of it.

And it goes on. Because if it doesn’t then the whole thing was a waste of time and we cannot have that. What we can gift to one another on a daily basis is what makes us who we are and what makes life worth living. If we are in the privileged position of having the capacity to gift more then let’s do it. Make it an act, not an airy-fairy flavour.

Coming up for air after finishing the book text, I have caught myself charging around town like a maniac seeing what we can help with, making slightly mad promises – which doesn’t feel sustainable in the long run, but let’s see where it ends.

It goes on. I had a ball at Liverpool’s new museum launch last Thursday, delighted it ended with a picture of Arne Slot, but delighted to see everyone. I got in the cab and said “Anfield, as close as you can get please, mate” as though it was the first game, but the place was packed with people you’d missed.

Do get to the museum if you can; it doesn’t wallow in the past, it frames it and sees it as a springboard for the best possible tomorrow.

The thing is, it always goes on. Shankly said football was “a hard, relentless task which goes on and on like a river,” and while for him the task may have been hard, for us it can never become that.

It must go on and it must go on with a lightness of touch, as the thing to look forward to. The football professionals should find it hard, but I like that it doesn’t relent. It means there is always something to look forward to. There is always something new.

We’re ready for it here. We’re making a few changes over the course of the year; we always do as you know. We’re going to give The Coach Home a year off. Mo Stewart did a brilliant job hosting that last season, but it has meant less of him on the Mondays in the round and we’d rather have that and it means we can do more with The Friday Show.

The Friday Show itself will no longer be free; instead The Gutter on a Thursday will be free until the end of August and then TAW Midweek Extra will cover the midweeks as our second audio freebie with some specials thrown in here and there.

The impact of the midweek games this season has, if anything, been underplayed. I’m convinced the Swiss System will be an improvement in all the senses that matter and convinced you’ll agree with me once we have had some lived reality.

There will be more Talking Reds in August especially and they will hang around through the year on video.

We added some excellent new contributors last season and brought some more experienced ones back a bit more regularly and I am certain you’ll enjoy what we have lined up for all of them.

I’m certain because there is so much to get our collective teeth into. I can’t wait for them to play in Pittsburgh, to see what it looks like, see where it can go. The longest interregnum you could imagine.

But it’s over. I hope everyone involved in or who cares about the summer tournaments had a lovely time, but that’s all finished now, that messing about. The river is back and the river is a gift. So is doing this. I hope you always receive it as such in all the ways.

Into this. Together. Good to be back, good to come up for air.

All my love,

Neil

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