This is the Blood Red Podcast from the Liverpool Echo, giving you the inside track on all the big talking points from Anfield.

While the Reds only have seven days to wait to get their Premier League campaign underway, the new EFL season is almost

upon us. From Plymouth to Middlesbrough, Cardiff to Ipswich, teams the length and breadth of the country

all head out full of optimism and hope. Amongst those clubs are plenty with links

to Anfield, from managers to coaches and players alike. And with that in mind we've

been along to Walsall this week to catch up with a man once dubbed the next Stephen Gerard, who was also briefly a teammate of

James Milner's, as well as playing under former Liverpool great Sammy Lee and Kevin Keegan.

Well having broke through the youth ranks, Danny Guthrie went on to feature just seven

times for the Reds, including making his full debut away in Istanbul against Galatasaray

in the Champions League.

And in this offering we sit down with Danny to discuss the adventures, experiences and opportunities he's had in the game to date, including growing up on the training pitches at Melwood.

The standard of the players that were in the squad at the time, especially in my position as well.

It couldn't have been a worse time to try and get in the team, but it was a different level to anything

I've seen in the game still to this day.

And that's the reason why they're at the top.

Well there's a snippet of what to expect.

I'm Guy Clark, this is Blood Red and time now to get to the main event.

Ahead of the new season we headed down to League 2side Walsall's training ground

to catch up with Danny and see how he's been getting on ahead of the new campaign

getting underway. We've had a good pre-season and you know by the end of pre-season you're desperate to start

playing for points I think we've played about eight friendlies or something like that

so as good as they are it's once you've done a few and you feel like you're getting

...