Manchester City F.C. supporters

Manchester City fans have also been characterised by their yellow inflatable bananas since the late 1980s and are often seen at Manchester City cup games; for a while, the fans of many other English clubs began to parade inflatable bananas in the crowd at matches.[25][26] In 1988 when City played against West Brom, during which City fans called for the introduction of City striker "Imre Banana", or Imre Varadi as his real name was. Varadi said after his career, "I remember running out at Manchester City and someone threw a banana and just called me 'Imre Banana!', it didn't even rhyme with my name. The inflatable craze just swept the country and there was a banana craze."[27] Indeed, Varadi was affectionately known as 'Banana' from then on and in the 1988–89 season inflatables soon become commonplace at many English football matches. In 1989, Manchester City travelled to play Hull City with City fans bringing hundreds of inflatable bananas amongst a veritable assortment of inflatables such as a six-foot crocodile, a toucan and a spitfire.[28]

Although the bananas were present at Maine Road matches, the bigger inflatable displays were generally reserved for away matches, most notably against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. This was an evening match which City lost 1–0. The drab match itself has largely been forgotten apart from Brian Gayle's original excuse for the mistake which cost the goal: "I was blinded by the floodlights". The sheer array of inflatables staggered many, four City fans appeared carrying an inflatable paddling pool, and sharks, penguins, crocodiles were present and there was even an epic battle of the monsters. At one end of the terrace stood Godzilla. Six feet tall, green and mean, this dinosaur was a match for anybody. At the other end of the terrace stood Frankenstein's Monster. Slowly they began to converge towards the centre of the terrace. The crowd roared in anticipation. Eventually they met and the creatures joined in battle.[7] The craze soon died down and come the 1990s the inflatable displays on a large scale were nowhere to be seen.[29]

Currently, inflatable bananas make sporadic appearances of at the City of Manchester Stadium (Etihad Stadium) in recent years.[30][31] Bananas are occasionally on show during latter stages of cup runs, such as the 2009 UEFA Cup quarter-final when Manchester City played Hamburg and 2016 League Cup semi-final against Everton.[32]

Manchester City supporters celebrating a goal against Fulham at Craven Cottage in 2011.

Another craze that City supporters decided to implement in England is a celebration or dance that has been given the nickname of 'The Poznan'. It first started on 21 October 2010 in a game against Lech Poznań in the Europa League, during the game the whole of the Poznan end turned their back to the pitch, joined arms and jumped up and down in unison.

Since, other clubs including West Ham United, Leicester City, and many more clubs up and down the country have joined in doing 'The Poznan',[33] albeit not as frequently as the City faithful. 'The Poznan' was frequently seen performed during the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United, and as the United line-up was being announced over the public address just before kick-off the entire City end turned their backs and did 'The Poznan'[34] and the Manchester City players and staff did the 'Poznan' at the end of match in front of the City supporters.

Manchester City supporters are also well known for their gallows humor fuelled by the many years of failure and unpredictability which is commonly associated with City and which fans enjoy wearing as a badge of their commitment. Gláuber Berti – After sitting on the bench 20 times in the 2008–09 season, the City fans were starting to joke that Gláuber Berti wasn't real and nicknamed him the invisible man. Finally though in the last game of the season against Bolton Wanderers he made an appearance in the 85th minute. This was the most popular substitution of the season and City fans greeted his every touch with applause and sang songs for him for the rest of the game.[35] In a game against Red Bull Salzburg, the City fans found another new Brazilian they took to call Alan. When he came on as a second-half substitute, the announcer on the public address simply called him "Alan" and City fans were amused to see a Brazilian footballer with such an English name as Alan. City fans then started singing songs for him such as "Alan is Superman!".[33] After the match, Alan thanked the City supporters for their support.[36] Grandma – In a game against West Bromwich Albion in February 2011, the big screen at the City of Manchester Stadium zoomed in on an elderly looking woman. City fans cheered, so the camera zoomed in on her a few more times throughout the match. As the game went on City fans nicknamed her 'Grandma' and started singing songs such as '75 years and she's still here' and 'Grandma do the Poznan' (which she did).[37] She was later revealed to be Mavis Goddard from nearby Hulme.[38] Unfortunately she suffered a stroke and was unable to attend the 2011 FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United,[39] a match City won 1–0 to book their place in the 2011 FA Cup Final, and she died in December 2011.[40] In 2012, Porto considered complaining to UEFA over an "unsporting" chant which was aimed at their player Hulk: "You're not incredible, you're not incredible!" to the tune of "La donna è mobile". With Manchester City leading the UEFA Europa League tie 4–0 at home, unimpressed City supporters proceeded to sing "You're not incredible, you're not incredible!" to the £80 million-rated Porto striker, who had a mediocre performance.[41]

Most City fans are agreed that Manchester United is their main rivalry, a bitter rivalry which has reignited in last few years due to the resurgence of Manchester City as one of the top teams in England following their brief absence from the top flight at the end of the 20th century and City's re-emergence as a major club following their 2008 takeover.[42] Both Manchester teams are regarded as among the best teams in the world with both clubs consistently progressing to the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League in recent years and both are in the top 5 of football clubs by revenue with the city now viewed as a football city in similar vein to cities such as Madrid and Milan,[43][44] although City's disappearance from the upper echelons of the league following their 1960s–70s heyday until their recent rise has led to the two teams being regarded as polar opposites, with City seen as the nouveau riche to United's old money.[45][46] The two sets of fans are traditionally diametrically opposed to each other, with City's fans accusing United of arrogance and of attempting to turn the Premier League into a closed shop for elite clubs only via manipulation of the rules[47][48] and of the media[49] while they in turn are accused of using their club's money as a route to success.[50] Additionally, and in a unique twist on a cross-city rivalry, both clubs' fans accuse each other of not representing their city, with the blue half of the city observing that their adversaries do not actually play in the city of Manchester (in Trafford) and therefore do not warrant their name, while the red half instead argue over which team has more fans inside of the city. City fans often ridicule United fans for being tourists in a play towards United's global fan base, stating that City is the club for the locals and United fans travel up from London or fly in from Europe and Asia for a day out. Following on from this City fans have often called United "Plastics" or "Glory Supporters" again in reference to their on the field dominance over several decades that made the club hugely popular with football supporters outside of Manchester. In turn due to the growth of City's global status following their 2008 takeover which brought an up turn in success on the field, United fans have said many plastic fans have jumped on City's bandwagon.[51][52][53] The most commonly used name by City fans to describe their cross-city rivals is the term "Rags", this is due to a period after World War II where United were given use of City's Maine Road stadium after Old Trafford had been bombed by the Luftwaffe. United at the time were so poor that they had to wear kits that after a while started to resemble old rags.[54] City fans refer to United's stadium as "The Swamp", whilst United call the City of Manchester Stadium, the "Emptyhad", which is a play on the words "Empty" and "Etihad" (the sponsored name of the stadium), which is a well known Anti-City jibe that stems from the myth that City have consistently low attendances due to sporadic visible light blue empty seats at some City home games.[55][56]

In a research study on football rivalries conducted in 2003, a sample of Manchester City fans also saw Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers as rivals after Manchester United. It also found fans of Oldham Athletic, Stockport County, Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United saw Manchester City in their top three of main rivals.[57] The club has always maintained a healthy rivalry with Tottenham, a club of similar stature, especially in recent years as both teams have been battling to secure lucrative Champions League places.[58] The rivalry has featured many memorable matches in the past including City's 3–4 FA Cup comeback of 2004,[59] the 1981 FA Cup Final and the "Ballet on Ice", which Manchester City fans remember as one of the greatest City performances.[60][61]

The club actively partakes in using the internet for social media to communicate with fans and Manchester City's online overall blog, forum and social media presence is believed to be one of the strongest by a football club online.[65][66][67] A new, streamlined club website was launched in July 2009[68] and expanded to America and Arabic language soon after. The new site supports fan sites and forum, by posting links to fan sites which are listed on Manchester City's official website[69] On the popular FIFA video game series, Manchester City were third-most-played team by online players in the 2011–12 season.[70]

Furthermore, the club has run its own social media websites since 2009. Official sites run by the club include Twitter,[71] Facebook[72] and Flickr[73] pages which fans can join. As of January 2016, the Manchester City FC – Official fanpage on Facebook has over 20 million followers. Also as of recently, City fans can also join an official fan map on the club website and now City fans can watch official club videos on the mcfcofficial channel on YouTube.[74]

Manchester City fans song of choice and the most commonly sung is a rendition of "Blue Moon". Boys in Blue is unofficially the club's anthem, which is often played at the end of games at Eastlands. The club also play the popular "Live for City" song, which is a remixed version of "Pounding" by Doves before most games at Eastlands as well as playing a number of songs by Oasis, due to the both bands' support of the team.

Another song frequently sung is "We're Not Really Here". The true and correct origin of the song is due to a City fan from the Prestwich & Whitefield supporters branch who died on a trip to Amsterdam in the early 90s. The branch, led by City fan Don Price sung this song about their friend in their local pub, The Forresters Arms. The full version goes "if you're drunk you will die if you don't drink you will die so it's better to be drunk than be sober when you die...just like the fans of the invisible man...we're not really here." The song then took off on a pre-season trip to Ireland in 1996 and was sung firstly at away games then at home games since that time.

Another chant sometimes sung to the tune of the 1920s classic Kum Ba Yah, "Sheikh Mansour m’lord, Sheikh Mansour, oh lord, Sheikh Mansour", a reference to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Manchester City's owner, who is credited with investing heavily in the club and the rise of the club's success.[75][76][77]

In 2012, Manchester City fans started a song for Yaya Touré and his brother Kolo Touré to the tune of "No Limit", they also came up with a dance to accompany it. The song became so popular that it was adopted by other clubs fans and would be a sang in holiday destinations such as Mallorca, Ibiza, Ayia Napa, plus other sporting events like the darts and at music festivals.