WHEN you choose a football club, you generally choose one for life. But not always. Sometimes, there are bonds that are even tighter than the ones that connect you to your team.

A decade ago, you would have struggled to find a bigger Liverpool fan than Simon Forshaw. Born and bred on Merseyside, he had a season ticket on the Kop at Anfield with his three sons, and used to love the match-day routine of taking his family to the same ground he had visited in his own youth.

Today, he still watches as much football as he used to. But instead of cheering for Liverpool, he is an equally fervent fan of Middlesbrough.

Why the sudden conversion at a relatively late stage of his life? With a resurgent Liverpool looking capable of challenging for the title under Jurgen Klopp this season, it is hardly glory hunting. Instead, it is proof that blood runs thicker than footballing affinities.

When Simon used to visit Anfield, he sat next to his middle son, Adam. Today, Adam can no longer travel to Liverpool’s home ground with him. Or to be more precise, he can only make the trip for one game every season.

“We all still love Liverpool,” said Adam Forshaw, the boyhood Liverpool fan who has achieved his dream of playing in the Premier League with Middlesbrough. “But my dad and older brother (Andy) come and watch me a lot, so they don't have a season ticket anymore. They’ve changed who they’re supporting.

“My younger brother (Tom) still has the season ticket and sits in the Kop where he always has, but my dad's hobby was always just watching me from a young age, so he wouldn't have got to any Liverpool games. They all tell me if I'm doing things right or wrong - especially Andy.

“My dad has always loved football, but wasn’t very good. It was my older brother who was a good amateur player and probably helped me. He is four years older and used to take me out with his mates, and it probably toughened me up.

“My dad doesn’t miss a game, he’ll go anywhere. We can play Bournemouth on a Tuesday night, away in the Championship, and he’d still go and be in work at 8.30am the next morning.”

Forshaw remains proud of his Liverpudlian roots, although he is extremely well settled on Teesside, citing Yarm and Eaglescliffe as areas that remind him of the well-heeled market towns that populate the North-West.

Steven Gerrard was his hero growing up, but while he would spend some of his weekends at Anfield, the rest of his week was focused around Everton. He joined the Goodison Park club’s academy at the age of seven, and spent almost a decade-and-a-half on the club’s books before leaving in 2012.

He was named Reserves Player of the Year towards the end of his time at Everton, and was touted as a potential star in the making after he made his Premier League debut under David Moyes towards the end of the 2010-11 season. However, it was to prove his one and only top-flight appearance in an Everton shirt.

A loan move to Brentford, who were playing in League One at the time, paved the way for a permanent move to Griffin Park, and he also played for Wigan Athletic before moving on to Middlesbrough in January 2015.

“You do look back (to Everton) and think, 'What would have happened had I not left’,” said Forshaw. “But I didn’t want to fizzle out. I’ve got a friend there now who’s my age, and he’s trying to leave now.

“That could have been me, unfortunately, and I feel now I made the right decision. You just don’t know - Everton did change the manager a year later, but I guess any players have the ‘What ifs’.

“I lived only two minutes away from the Everton training ground so moving away took me out of my comfort zone. On the football side I was fine, it was more difficult moving away from my family and into the unknown.

“Looking back, it was probably my best decision. At the time, Everton had the likes of Marouane Fellaini, Leon Osman and Tim Cahill in the team and David Moyes had built a good side. It was always going to be difficult to break into that team.

“This is where I always wanted to be though, playing in the Premier League is what I dreamt of as a kid, and I hope to stay here for a very long time.”

His chances of enjoying an extended stay in the top-flight have been enhanced by the successful start to the season that has seen him cement a place in Boro’s starting line-up, even though he was something of a fringe performer during last season’s promotion campaign.

He started just nine league games in the whole of last term, but with Grant Leadbitter nursing a long-term injury, he was the logical port of call when Marten de Roon damaged his hamstring in the opening game of the season.

He has not looked back since, starting all bar one Premier League game and producing a string of impressive performances that mean he can justifiably claim to be Boro’s most consistent performer this season.

His displays have earned praise from the Middlesbrough faithful, and have not gone unnoticed at a national level with Jermaine Jenas having singled Forshaw out for a burst of gushing praise on a recent edition of Match of the Day.

“It was mad,” said Forshaw. “It’s nice though. I’ve watched it all my life growing up as a kid, and it was nice to get a mention. It was nice to be talked about like that.

“I was out at the time, and I just got a bombardment of texts with people saying, ‘Jermaine Jenas was all over you’. It was nice. I watched it the next day and enjoyed it. But I also know that could easily be another day and one night he could be digging you out and highlighting something you’ve done wrong.”

That level of scrutiny is one of the major differences between life in the Championship and Premier League, and Forshaw admits he is still coming to terms with the increased scrutiny that goes hand in hand with a place in the top-flight.

“There’s no hiding place is there? We had a meeting at the start of the season about discipline and things like that, and it was spelled out to us that there are so many cameras on you in the stadium, there literally is no hiding place,” he said.

“You’re in the public eye a lot more, especially if you choose to be on Twitter and things like that. You just have to live your life properly and be as professional as you can.”

Something that is not a problem for Forshaw. In many ways, the 25-year-old is the polar opposite to so many of the Premier League stereotypes, humble, down-to-earth and approachable at all times.

“I’m probably not your typical footballer,” he said. “I love it round here, but my area in South Liverpool is quite quiet and I’m used to living in a village, not in the centre of the city.

“I love being here. I enjoy the facilities, everything about it, the staff. I’m trying to ride it as much as possible, and when a new contract was offered in the summer, I thought about everything and thought it was definitely the right thing to do (to sign). It’s proven to be.

“I want to be in the Premier League for the whole time with Middlesbrough. Hopefully, the club can build and build and do what the likes of Southampton and Leicester have done. That’s a realistic aim. If we stay up this season and go from there, I can’t see why not.”