IT’S

a strange feeling looking in from the outside as the Premier League gets underway but my excitement for the new season remains as strong as ever. We’ve picked our fantasy teams and we have got a league going at Stoke. The opening match is like no other. From the moment you walk back through the door on the first day of training, everything is geared up to being ready for the middle of August. You do double sessions, you spend time in the gym and play friendlies and it is all centred on one 90 minutes. There is so much adrenaline pumping that you tend to get lots of goals and shocks all around and my one hope for the year is that we do get more surprise results and the title race doesn’t turn into a procession. Getting three points on the board straight away is fantastic but I’ve experienced the other side of the coin and one of my most vivid memories is losing 4-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on my debut for Portsmouth 10 years ago. We hardly got a kick that day and I came away thinking Deco, who also made his debut for Chelsea, was going to be one of the best players we had ever seen in England! What happens on the first day, clearly, is not a sign of how things will turn out!