City's bananas bounce back at Anfield in Liverpool rout
Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield on Sunday and the away end answered with inflatable bananas.
Dozens of the yellow inflatables bounced among the travelling supporters during the Premier League win, England's top flight. Former City striker Imre Varadi told BBC Radio 5 Live Drive it was "brilliant to see" and said their return had brought a lot of fun back into the game. BBC
The bananas were back. City fans have done this before, and this was a deliberate throwback.
The craze dates to Varadi's spell in the late 1980s. Supporters nicknamed him 'Imre Banana' and started taking inflatable bananas to games when City were in the old Second Division, then England's second tier. BBC
Varadi joined City from West Brom in October 1986. He scored 26 goals in 65 appearances before moving to Sheffield Wednesday in September 1988.
He still leans into the joke. He now sells inflatable bananas via Manchester City.
Sunday's display was organised. Fan group 1894 handed out upwards of 1,000 inflatables for the trip to Anfield, according to Dante Friend, who is associated with the group. Friend said the whole tradition started because of Varadi. Yahoo Sports
On the pitch, City were ruthless. Erling Haaland opened the scoring on 66 minutes and substitute Doku doubled the lead soon after. Manchester City
The 3-0 win kept up a flying run. City left Anfield with eight wins from eight games in all competitions, including six wins from six in the Premier League. Manchester City
What makes this stand out is the mix of past and present. City are winning at the sharp end of the table, yet the loudest image from the away end came from the 1980s. For fans, this means a new generation got to share an old joke, started by a striker whose name still gets a chant.
