Instead of ‘why always Liverpool?’ we should be asking ‘why always Rome?’

As the rain fell, Sean Cox lay on the concrete of Walton Breck Road. Imagine being Sean. Imagine being Sean’s brother. The screech of police sirens; the blare of arriving ambulances, the sound of their brakes. They were meant to be inside Anfield just yards away. The attack on Sean happened not long before kick-off. He was on a stretcher when the Kop was in full voice, just as the teams came out. Witnesses say the ambulance doors were closing. You’ll Never Walk Alone will take on a new meaning for Sean’s brother now. We do not know yet whether Sean will be able to remember anything.

Liverpool are close to qualifying for their first Champions League final in eleven years. This team’s emergence under Jürgen Klopp has been spectacular. In normal circumstances, supporters would be starting to arrive in a foreign country today excited about all of the glorious possibilities: about drinks in the sun, about being with friends, about Kiev as well - where the Champions League final will be played.

Instead, thoughts are laced with concern. Sean too must have imagined all of the glorious possibilities as he made his way to Anfield last Tuesday night having travelled over from Ireland. Having undergone a major operation, today he will be brought out of his medically induced coma at Walton Hospital’s neurological centre.

The attack on Sean could have happened to anyone identified as being non-Roman. Listening to Liverpool supporters, the conversation does not have to go on for long before there is mention of what might happen to them just for looking different.

Liverpool officials have held what was described as an “extraordinary” summit in Rome but similar meetings were held weeks in advance of a game in 2001 when Liverpool went there for a Uefa Cup game. On that occasion, 14 fans returned home with stab wounds.

John Nicolson is a Liverpool supporter of 50 years. In 1984, he travelled to Rome for the European Cup final as part of an official trip. It involved being bussed to the ground on arrival and bussed back to the airport after Liverpool beat Roma on penalties. The buses were trailed then by a cavalcade of men on scooters, who tried to bring the bus to a halt by throwing glass bottles underneath the wheels of the moving target. What may have happened then does not bear thinking about, considering the stabbings that had taken place elsewhere in the city in the hours before and what happened years later when, in 2009, a similar tactic was used to board a bus of Arsenal supporters, one of whom was subsequently knifed.

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There are some who have since tried to reason that what happened to Sean Cox is rationalised by what happened when Manchester City’s coach approached Anfield ahead of the quarter final-first leg, when bottles were thrown at windows and glass was shattered. “Why always Liverpool?” they say, without asking the same question of Rome, where Liverpool have indeed encountered stabbings before, but so have Middlesbrough (three in 2006), Arsenal and then Tottenham in 2012, when an attack was likened by witnesses to a “commando raid.” The pattern should surely invite also the question, why always England?

Nicolson does not attend many European away games with Liverpool any more but there was never any chance of him going to this one. “Historically, Rome presents too many problems,” he explains. “I’m concerned for my friends who are going. To be honest, I’m concerned for everyone, especially after what happened last week. If a group can run down a street and attack someone outside the Kop, you do wonder what they might do over there.”

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David Woods has been to each of Liverpool’s Champions League away matches this season. “Great times, had lots of fun…we booked our flights to Rome but we’re not going now,” he says. The decision has lost him hundreds of pounds but he doesn’t mind. “A lot of older guys I know had advised not to book the flights when the draw was made because of the trouble in Rome in the past. We ignored them – surely it couldn’t be that bad. But after the trouble last Tuesday, we decided not to go. It’s not worth it. There’s five of us.” David might have arrived at a different conclusion if he’d made his arrangements via an official club trip. Travelling independently means different concerns, however. “We had an Airbnb but we didn’t know what the area was like…it could just be the case of walking down the wrong street.”

John Mackin, another season ticket holder, is travelling independently from Venice to Bologna by train, then down to Rome on Wednesday morning. “I’ll see how it’s gone overnight, if there are any war stories. If it looks bad, I’m not going to go to the game,” he says. “I’ll try and find a nice trattoria, hit the bottom of the wine list, and try and enjoy it there.”

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John has seen Liverpool play in Rome twice so he thinks he is experienced enough to see the warning signs when trouble is waiting around the corner. The geography of the Olympic Stadium concerns him because the only way back to the centre of Rome is through the wide boulevards to the south where many of the Roma fans congregate, or across one of the two bridges by the ground, where attacks have taken place before.

“The Italian police worry me as well, they will evaporate,” John thinks. Andrea Cecchini, a spokesman for the Union of Italian State Police, told Il Tempo newspaper in Rome on Saturday that he is preparing for an arrival of 1,000 Liverpool “ultras”, yet this is a fanbase that hasn’t had a single arrest in any of its six European away matches this season. “Perception is often a lot worse than the reality,” John concludes. “I don’t trust the police to look after us. I don’t trust Roma to behave. It’s not a healthy combination.”