ExpandFormer Manchester City striker Imre Varadi, aka Imre Banana.
Former Manchester City striker Imre Varadi, aka Imre Banana.
Inflatable bananas, you might have noticed, have become quite a thing again at Manchester City since they were found guilty of all those charges. Their supporters have been bringing mountains of them to games, with Phil Foden even carrying one to a post-match interview on Saturday.
The story behind them? It all goes back to 1987, when City were rubbish. A supporter by the name of Frank Newton brought a five-foot inflatable banana to a Second Division game against Plymouth. Why? Just for a laugh, and soon enough most City fans were brandishing them. “Gallows humour”, as the Manchester Evening News called it, “it helped fans cope with lacklustre performances on the pitch”.
And, eh, naturally enough, one of their strikers at the time, Imre Varadi, became known as, well, “Imre Banana”. Was he offended? Heck no, he even has a website called ImreBanana.com where, yes, he sells inflatable bananas at a tenner a pop.
Seeing as they had become a thing of the past, you can’t imagine the fellah was earning a whole lot from his business ... until last week. Now? “I’m getting thousands of orders from all over the world – demand has absolutely gone through the roof,” he told The Sun. “They are bringing a lot of joy to the game.” And to his bank balance, hopefully.
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Liverpool’s Austrian beer cups
A Liverpool fan with his collection of empty beer cups at Austrian club LASK's stadium last week.
A Liverpool fan with his collection of empty beer cups at Austrian club LASK's stadium last week.
Liverpool had a profitable Champions League visit to Austria last Wednesday when they collected three points from their 6-3 win over LASK. And it proved to be a profitable trip for some of their supporters too, after they collected empty beer cups around the stadium in Linz.
According to the Daily Mail, LASK are big in to “eco-friendly schemes” and so offer €3 for every returned empty beer cup (which makes them sound a touch pricey). Naturally then, Liverpool fans busied themselves collecting the empties, with some gathering so many, they covered the cost of their trip to Austria. Mind you, it meant they missed quite a bit of the action. “I think I saw one of the nine goals scored,” as one of them told the paper.
Any sign of an olive branch?
Is there any sign of an end to the aggro between Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal’s manager Jorge Jesus? Not really. And you can’t imagine the latter’s lawyer, Luis Henrique, has helped. He has been a long-time columnist for the Record newspaper, but announced last week that he’s quitting because Ronaldo is a shareholder in the company that owns it.
His message to Ronaldo in his final column? “You have achieved something that no opponent ever managed: to spoil our ability to remember all the good you have brought us. You surround yourself more and more with those who tell you what you want to hear and less and less with those who tell you what you need to hear. That is the fate of gods and autocrats: they end up alone on Olympus, surrounded by mirrors.” Divil a sign of an olive branch, then.
Pen will it end?
Stop what you're doing and watch this unreal penalty from the Caribbean Cup pic.twitter.com/iqFdr1gPDL
— WiZi (@WiZiCFC) October 15, 2026
To be honest, some of us thought this was an AI creation, but apparently Trayvone Reid’s interminable penalty run-up in the Caribbean Cup game between Mount Pleasant and Club Sando was real. The Sun’s headline was most excellent: “Pen will it end?”
Quote of the Week
“For me, they should start on minus 25 points for the next five years. Also, a transfer ban for five years and a big fine. The ownership should be forced to sell the club, and there should be bans for everyone who has been in on this.” – Apart from that, Peter Schmeichel hopes the Premier League will go easy on Manchester City.
Number: 81,234
That’s how much Mikel Arteta will earn a day after signing his new contract with Arsenal. A week later? The club announced they were cutting 60 jobs. Timing? It’s everything.
Word of Mouth
“The executive of Real Madrid has an orchestra of mouthpieces. The script is always the same. It reminds one of the propaganda techniques that Goebbels used.” – How have La Liga president Javier Tebas’s remarks gone down? Not great.
“Personal preference is one thing; you prefer Messi, Pelé or Maradona. I understand that, and I respect it. But saying that Cristiano isn’t complete is a lie.” – Cristiano, of course.
“Yes, we’re a bit fragile, and we concede poor goals, but I’m quite excited – I think we’re actually probably playing the best football in the Premier League.” – Jason Cundy hailing his old club Spurs after seeing the bottom-of-the-table side fail to win any of their first six games and fail to score in the first four. Easily excited, that lad.