When it came to deciding which English team to support in the dim and distant days of my youth, there was only one winner.
All-conquering Liverpool with their Scottish contingent of Alan Hansen, Graeme Souness, Steve Nicol and the peerless Kenny Dalglish were easily the choice of team to back from afar.
When the Reds won their last title back in 1990, few people would have predicted that the wait for the next one would stretch to over two decades.
However, the club’s fans have now endured 23 years of hurt to be exact, with the lack of success being put further into perspective with the realisation that the last title won was actually the old First Division championship and not one in the brave new world of the Premiership and now the Barclays Premier League.
Ever the optimist, I used to regularly put a bet on at the start of every season that Liverpool would finally end their title drought.
The only winner though was my bookmaker and in recent years, I have kept my tenner firmly in my wallet as season after season ended with Liverpool well away from the league’s summit.
Now though are there persuasive reasons to believe that this could finally be Liverpool’s year?
Premier League title talk has almost exclusively centred on Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea this season.
Yet, Liverpool are currently sitting second top having just thrashed Spurs 5-0 at White Hart Lane, a result that cost Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas his job.
Admittedly, the London side were poor against the Reds but some of Brendan Rodgers’ side’s play was out of the top drawer, with the manager describing the performance as the best all-round display since he took over at Anfield.
There were certainly no failures for Liverpool as they tore Spurs apart at will, with Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson, Jon Flanagan and Philippe Coutinho just a few who were deserving of five stars.
Once again though it was the albeit controversial Luiz Suarez who was the stand-out performer for the Reds, scoring two goals and being a constant thorn in the side of the pitiful Spurs defence.
Before the game, all the talk had been about how Liverpool would cope without striker Daniel Sturridge and talismanic skipper Steven Gerrard.
However, the duo were not missed as the men from Merseyside secured their first win in seven visits to the North London ground.
On this evidence, Rodgers’ side look the real deal and deserve to be taken seriously as title contenders.
As always though, the hectic festive schedule will provide a true indication of the long-term feasibility of their championship ambitions.
Between now and the start of January, they have two perfectly winnable home games against Cardiff and Hull.
However, it is the two away matches sandwiched between the fixtures at Anfield that will really test the Reds with a Boxing Day trip to Manchester City being followed 72 hours later with a visit to Chelsea.
How they fare at the Etihad and Stamford Bridge will either be the launching pad for a true title challenge or show that the grounds for optimism were wildly misplaced.
All Liverpool fans including those hundreds of miles away in Scotland are hoping it will be the former.