You didn’t need to be in possession of a crystal ball or deceptively old former National Lottery medium Mystic Meg to look at West Ham’s away visit to Palermo in Sicily and spot a bit of bother on the horizon. In fact, if it had went off completely peacefully I’d have been shocked.

Selling t-shirts bearing Mafia slogans outside Upton Park before the first leg might have been a cheeky East End bit of leg pulling (and who wouldn’t have cashed in if they were a merchandise vendor awaiting the visit of the Sicilians? I know I would) but it shouldn’t ever have been forgotten that while Sicily is renowned for it’s links with the origins of the world’s most well known crime syndicate, it’s people don’t exactly have a reputation for being in possession of the most advanced sense of humour. Take the mickey out of the Irish or Scousers and you may get a witty riposte back, take the mickey out of a Sicilian and expect to get a shiv in the kidneys if you turn your back. The choice is yours.

We all know that the West Ham boys can handle themselves though and after a day of sampling the local liquid delicacies it seems like a minor rumpus started in the Teatro Massimo in Palermo as some “naughty” boys on both sides threw anything that wasn’t nailed down at each other for over an hour. Is it a good advert for English fans abroad though when it takes Sicilian police in riot gear an hour to quell the trouble and then bus the 2500 West Ham fans out of the city centre and away from the conflict?

With the game still some ten hours away and no doubt more booze to be consumed I wonder just how heavy handed the security around the Palermo stadium will be and if the West Ham boys haven’t left themselves open to some “special” police attention before and after the game.

Saying that maybe the media have created a storm in a teacup, for an hour long’s raging battle only six people were admitted to hospital with minor injuries and only two West Ham fan were arrested accused of assault and resisting arrest. Given the local temperament I wouldn’t like to be a West Ham fan in Palermo tonight if Pardew’s men manage to overturn their one goal deficit and put the Sicilians out, be it police or rival fans, they could be in for a sleepless night.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2006 at 9:25 am and is filed under West Ham United. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.