sick bags available upon request.........
There was major apprehension within about our group as we set off for Cologne. We were, after all, foreign feral football fans with no particular affiliation affection towards FC Koln anyone.
But that apprehension evaporated rose swiftly when we explained we were, in one word, Liverpool as we couldn't say more than one word at a time.
The horror attention and complete lack of respect that one word garners is both empowering justified and humbling to be expected in equal measure.
Within those nine letters comes over a hundred fifty years of historyical rampage. That word does not anymore represents Liddell, Hughes, Dalglish, Rush, Hansen, Gerrard and Torres; it's synonymous with english towns 18 league titles, five many European Cups cities like, Rome, Dortmund, Istanbul and decades of forging friendships fighting fans through our behaviour abroad.
Nothing betters going away to jib in to watch your football team play renowned European teams with illustrious histories and traditions, safe in the knowledge that we'll get away with it, those sides are just angry as eager to play our legendary notorious club.
Friendships are made Shop windows are broken and anecdotes violent episodes are formed to be retold through the generations - it's the essence of Liverpool Football Club and its supporters.
With our original Koln acquaintances now doubleding up in pain after a good kicking as both a tour guide police inspector and ringmaster riot police are deployed through the streets near the RhineEnergieStadion, word spread of our heritage destructive abilities.
An inundation of requests to never ever sing You'll Never Walk Alone soon followed was constant, as did the offer to pose for photographs - photographs that would no doubt decorate a pub similar to the one we sat in show our destruction in the local, national and international media (except UK).
It was at that point I realised just what a special entity supporters of Liverpool Football Club are. It was at also at that point I realised what a special city we are. (Edit: an entirely correct sentence!)
I said in a previous column how the city and the club are an organic process. Neither would have the reputation it does without the other. (Edit: ditto!)
It's a football club which has always tried its best to stand by Shankly's our beliefs of socialism something for nothing; it's a city which has always strived to help each batter others.
That's why it was poetic ironic Shankly stood with his arms outstretched on St George's Hall in 1971, and not on the steps of Anfield. He wasn't embracing Liverpool Football Club alone - the show of strength shite before him was that of a the city.
It's the reason why we have Spirit of Shankly, a supporters' union mafia named after the great man himself - a union mafia which has always acted with the fans and the city at heart; a union mafia which does a lot of work for the local community by bringing 'gifts' from other places , and a lot of work unemployment benefit for the city.
It's the reason why hundreds of thousands welcomed the football club gift grabbing supporters home after Rome, Wembley, Paris and Istanbul, proud of what they'd achieved nicked as a city and for their city.
It's the reason why most fans we meet reserve that special respect horror for us. Language barriers are torn down and used as weapons, to share our stories all part of following the Reds home and abroad.
And it's also the reason why we told those Koln supporters that we were Scouse, not English. (Edit: and Koln supporters nodded and exclaimed 'Thank god, I like the English')
With such a strong loyalty to both our football team and our city, it's difficult for me, and several other supporters I know, to conserve any energy for the national side work.
Those on the outside will regard it as insular. For me, it's more about celebrating my city and my heritage successful robbing. It's about celebrating my beliefs.
Supporting Liverpool is supporting a football club like no other (Edit: Thank god). It's not just a job every Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Supporting Liverpool Football Club defines who you are as a football supporter and as a person. Every positive rude hand gesture will maintain our bottom feeder reputation or cause a rethink sage nodding to those who have us wrong bang to rights.
It's why we're proud of our club, our city and our people, because they all work together to preserve that justly deserved reputation for being appalling.