Cole - who, lest we forget, did not do it for the money - said it was a "no-brainer" to leave reigning champions Chelsea to ignore the entreaties of Tottenham and Arsenal to name but two, and join Roy Hodgson's red revolution.
There are those who would rightly question Cole's credentials as a catalyst for change at a club which dropped out of a customary top four slot last season amid boardroom wrangling and rumours of big-name departures.
Cole did, after all, spend his summer as an England World Cup benchwarmer and it was his inability to hold down a regular first-team place at Stamford Bridge which led Carlo Ancelotti to deem him surplus to requirements.
Nevertheless, the very fact Cole chose Liverpool suggests that talk of a post-Rafael Benitez demise may have been exaggerated. With Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres supposedly now in tow, things look brighter at Anfield.
But it is not the only place apparently bounding with pre-season optimism. At Tottenham, despite Cole's very public snub, boss Harry Redknapp is not only aiming at retaining a top four place, but winning the whole thing.
"I think we could contend for the title," insisted Redknapp this week.
"We have got the players here. We have got to aim for it. We could win the championship - it's not impossible. Someone has to do it sometime."
That is a view echoed at Eastlands where Roberto Mancini's summer spending threatens to thrust Manchester City into the title frame and make a further mockery of the game's long-held established order.
"The Premier League used to be known for the 'Big Four'," City midfielder Gareth Barry said this week.
"But not any more. Tottenham managed to break into it last season and we had a good go as well. We hope to affect that again this year."
This time last year there was a gnawing feeling the title race was going to be another battle between Chelsea and Manchester United and so it turned out, notwithstanding Arsenal's brave bid to lever in between them.
Arsene Wenger's men were ultimately let down by inexperience, just as Manchester City's new buying power had not yet yielded enough of a base to render them realistic contenders.
Liverpool were full of off-pitch problems and resurgent Tottenham had restrained their ambitions to a wholly realistic - and ultimately achieved - goal of muscling in on the top four.
Twelve months on, Cole's move and the words of the likes of Redknapp and Barry suggest that not only has the talent pool been spread more evenly at the top end, but the former Europa League also-rans now have the belief to go with it.
Neither United nor Chelsea have done much to try to bolster records which hardly made them invincible for large periods of last season, while the Gunners have been ravaged by worries over the future of Cesc Fabregas.
Meanwhile the gap has been closing behind them to the point where it would take a brave pundit to predict the destiny of the coming season's Premier League crown - never mind who will fill the Champions League positions.
All of which is good for a game which arguably needs an exciting, competitive season more than ever on the back of the World Cup's bad news summer and the financial austerity which hardly sits well with stories of more £90,000-per-week deals.
Perhaps Cole will be proved right in his brave assertion that Liverpool, under the new tactical astuteness of Hodgson, are back at the top. Whatever, it will probably be the first time in a long time that we have so much fun finding out.
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