Imre Varadi: Goals, value and inflatable bananas

When you think of good, honest value for money, the signing of Imre Varadi, who led City’s forward line so well for two seasons in the late 1980s, has to be high on the list. He was the archetypal journeyman footballer, yet despite playing for 15 clubs during his 18-year career, he never bettered the statistics he created during his time at Maine Road. He was picked up for a bargain £50,000 by manager Jimmy Frizzell following City’s disastrous start to the 1986/87 season – 10 games played and failing to score in half-a-dozen of them. Varadi joined from West Brom and scored on his debut at Chelsea – it was a taster of things to come. Though City failed to score in 20 of their 46 league and cup matches that season, Varadi top scored with nine in 29 league games – or one quarter of all goals scored by the Club that season (just 36 in total!) Frizzell was sacked and Mel Machin then took charge, but the former Norwich boss could see the value of Varadi and he banked on him and Paul Stewart scoring enough goals to win City’s place back in the top division. Varadi and Stewart racked up 16 goals between them in the first 16 games before Varadi picked up an injury ruling him out of the next game against Huddersfield Town. in November 1987. What happened in that game is now part of City folklore and Varadi had to watch from the stands as his team-mates banged ten goals past Huddersfield. Varadi won his place back a couple of games later but seven losses in the next nine games meant there would be no promotion party come May. It was around this time that the odd inflatable banana appeared on the Kippax and this was, by many, put down to the fact many people called City’s No.9 ‘Imre Banana’. It was the start of an inflatable craze that put a much needed smile back on the face of football in England, still recovering from a number of tragic events and a European ban. City fans inspired clubs up and down the land to take their own versions of inflatables to their clubs. Stoke had pink panthers, Norwich had canaries, Lincoln had imps and from a whole host of others, perhaps Grimsby Town’s harry the haddock was the best. All this was seemingly down to a few City fans interpretation of Varadi’s name – at least as legend has it - and, years later, he admitted it was something he was extremely proud to have been connected to. City pushed for a late promotion run in 1988 but finished ninth. Trevor Morley was signed the following season and took over Varadi’s No.9 shirt – the writing was on the wall for Imre and, just like the Littlest Hobo, it was time to leave the home comforts he’d craved for so long and find a new family to look after him. Varadi was snapped up by one of his former clubs, Sheffield Wednesday for the same fee he’d signed for City. With 31 goals from 81 appearances (13 of those as sub), he averaged not for short of a goal every other game, Varadi was worth every penny City spent on him and was every bit the cult hero of the day. And, bearing in mind the inflatable craze he is often credited with being the inspiration for, it was no wonder he is still fondly remembered by those who saw him play. Illustration: Ben Wild