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Manchester City Fans Invited To Wave Inflatable Dolls And Guns At Napoli: Dust Out Godzilla

by | 9th, September 2011

MANCHESTER City are making ready for their Champions League debut against Napoli by extending an invite to the fans:

Got a flag, banner or something else you like to wave on matchdays? If the answer is yes, the Club is inviting you to bring them along next Wednesday as City take on Napoli.

Anyone see a problem coming?

Time to remind you of the words of Frank Newton, a Manchester City fan who attended a match against Plymouth Argyle in 1987 with a single inflatable banana…

Frank decided to remove his regulation City shirt and for the want of anywhere else to put it, put it on the banana. Within a few minutes a face had been drawn and a bobble hat completed the effect…
Just like Frank, the banana followed City all over the country and became a well-known figure on the terraces. At West Brom in November, City fans called for the appearance of substitute Imre Varadi. The chant mutated and he was henceforth known affectionately as “Imre Banana”…

It was the 1988/89 football season that saw the inflatables craze really take off…. Frank had moved up to a six-foot crocodile but the rest of the fans had caught up with him. At a pub outside Hull he was joined by fans carrying a toucan, a seven foot golf club, a spitfire, a Red Baron and two bananas. At the ground there were still more: parrots, gorillas, panthers and literally hundreds of bananas…
The movements reached it apogee in 1987 when four fans appeared at West Bromwich Albion’s ground carrying an inflatable paddling pool. Sharks and penguins were both represented. (Arsenal fans favoured the inflatable fried egg.)

At one end of the terrace stood Godzilla. Six foot tall, green and mean, this dinosaur was a match for anybody. At the other end of the terrace stood Frankenstein’s Monster. Slowly they bagan to converge towards the centre of the terrace. The crowd roared.

City fans – what you taking?



Posted: 9th, September 2011 | In: Sports Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink