Sport

Manchester City unveil statue in honour of club legends Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee

Before the likes of Kompany, Silva and Aguero, there were these three maestros.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 28th November 2023

Manchester City have revealed a brand new statue paying tribute to club legends Colin Bell, Francis ‘Franny’ Lee and Mike Summerbee.

Unveiling the new permanent bronze sculpture of Bell, Lee and Summerbee outside the Etihad Stadium on 28 November, Man City stated that “the magnificent statue will serve as a reminder of three of our greatest ever players.”

Designed by artist David Williams-Ellis, an Irish sculptor who specialises in capturing the human figure, those attending City’s Champions League fixture against RB Leipzig on Tuesday night will be among the first fans to see the trio of trophy-winning players.

Hailed as the three best players in the club’s first true golden era in the late ’60s, when they won the 1968 First Division title, the 1969 FA Cup, the 1970 Cup Winners Cup and a League Cup, they gave Blues their very first taste of success and years of memories to look back on.

As a touching addition, the statue is both a way of honouring Bell, who died back in 2021, the late Franny Lee who passed away back in October, and the surviving Summerbee who is now one of the few remaining members of that incredible team, as well as a special nod to the squad at large.

On the plinth beneath their likenesses, the artist has also included a bronze plate featuring the names of the 29 teammates who played alongside Man City’s own ‘Holy Trinity’.

A touching tribute not only to the talented triumvirate but the other beloved footballers who helped them shine on the pitch. The statue will now stand proudly outside the ever-developing home ground alongside sculptures of modern-era club legends Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and David Silva.

Here’s what manager Pep Guardiola had to say on the unveiling and the players’ legacy.

Read more:

The club’s Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said in a statement: “This statue honours three players who are unquestionably City legends and have deservedly earned a special place in the history of the Club and hearts of the whole City family.

“The artist’s decision to feature the three men in motion on a single plinth, as well as include the 29 names of their teammates, gives us the opportunity to acknowledge a trophy-winning era of City football history that has, and will, resonate for generations to come.”

As for Summerbee himself, the 80-year-old said of the new installation: “This is a truly special moment for me and my family. I joined Manchester City in 1965 and it is the best decision I could have possibly made. 50 years later, I am still here, still treated with such respect.

“I feel incredibly lucky to be recognised in this way, amongst friends whose contribution to our history this Club never forgets, despite the amazing success we have enjoyed in recent years. It is an honour to be part of this extraordinary Club.”

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Manchester City

Sport

Gymshark is opening its first standalone northern store in Manchester this weekend

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Outside the new Gymshark store

A huge new Gymshark store is opening in Manchester tomorrow, and it’s the brand’s first standalone store in the North.

The global sportswear and fitness brand will be setting up shop at the Trafford Centre and taking over a large 7,500 ft space on Upper Peel Avenue with all of its iconic Gymshark ranges, including the massively ‘Vital’ and ‘Power’ collections, as well as some exciting new exclusives for Gymshark Trafford Centre.

The store itself is said to have Gymshark’s ‘increasingly trademark’ look and feel throughout it, including mannequins that are created from the image of real people in the community, different destinations for its hero products, and spacious changing rooms with bespoke lighting.

Unfamiliar with Gymshark? Since it was founded by Ben Francis from his garage in 2012, the brand has gone on to become one of the UK’s greatest business success stories of the 21st century – with more than 20 million people across 200 countries now counting themselves as members of the Gymshark community.

Gymshark is opening its first standalone northern store in Manchester this weekend / Credit: Supplied

The new Trafford Centre will be Gymshark’s first standalone store in the UK outside of London, and follows recent openings in Dubai and Amsterdam, as well as coming ahead of the opening of Gymshark’s first flagship store in the US later this year.

Most importantly, it builds on the brand’s long association with Manchester, as one of the first-ever Gymshark meet-ups was in the city, as well as its first ‘Lift’ event post-COVID.

Gymshark also credits the public’s reception to its space inside Selfridges at the Trafford Centre as one of the driving forces behind its choice to open a permanent store within the shopping centre, calling it ‘nothing short of spectacular’ and adding that the new opening genuinely solidifies Manchester’s role as a ‘big brother’ to a Brummie brand.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Gymshark’s first Northern store to Trafford Centre this weekend, joining our growing athleisure and sportswear offering at the centre,” commented Simon Layton, who is the Centre Director at Trafford Centre.

“We have no doubt that Gymshark will prove immensely popular and can’t wait to welcome them on opening day.”

Read more:

Gymshark is opening at the Trafford Centre tomorrow (Saturday 12 July) with a grand ribbon cutting at 10am, followed by goody bags, refreshments, and merch being handed out for those waiting in line.

There’ll also be different fitness challenges to take part in too, in true Gymshark spirit.

Featured Image – Trafford Centre

Sport

Explaining the ‘Poznań’ and why Oasis fans are doing it at their Live ’25 reunion tour gigs

Danny Jones Danny Jones

The sun is shining, Britpop is back on top and, more importantly, Oasis are BACK – plus, they’ve got thousands of people that aren’t even Manchester City fans doing the Poznań. Here’s why.

Before you jump down our throats, yes, we’re fully aware of what the popular Man City supporter celebration is (including the fact that it’s nicked); however, we have seen plenty of people confused over what it’s all about.

Including a few in our office who couldn’t give a monkey’s about football, which is fair enough.

So, if like lots of other non-footy-obsessed Oasis fans, you’ve also been wondering A) what the Poznań is and B) why people on the Live ’25 reunion tour have been doing it, here’s a brief explanation.

What is the Poznań celebration?

For starters, if you’ve been keeping off social media completely to avoid any spoilers whatsoever, first of all, well done, your willpower is much stronger than ours.

Secondly, if you’ve never seen it before at all, here’s what it looks like:

It came out of Poland, hailing from the place of the same name and popularised by Ekstraklasa (a.k.a. the Polish first division) football team, Lech Poznań, who have been doing it since the 1960s.

As you can see, the group – and in this case, stadium-wide celebration – sees supporters turning their backs on the pitch/the centre of the arena and linking by wrapping arms around each other’s shoulders and jumping up and down in one, massive, continuous wave.

It is quite a striking visual, no question about that.

Why are Oasis fans doing it?

Come on, you must have put two and two together by now.

Manchester City fans adopted this now iconic celebration more than a decade and a half ago, and have been doing it regularly during big games, big scorelines, and big trophy wins, of which there have been a lot since then.

In fact, aside from the Burnage boys being massive Blues, Liam Gallagher himself actually instructed the Cardiff crowds on nights one and two.

It’s actually said to originate from Turkey or Greece, where it is also fairly commonplace, being simply referred to as ‘la Grecque’.

They’ve even used some pretty biblical official photography from the opening weekend of the reunion tour as the cover art for a live recording re-released of ‘Slide Away’.

It might be the coolest album artwork we’ve seen in a while, to be honest.

The history of the Poznań and its connection to Man City

Be it at Wembley for a cup final or at the Etihad Stadium, where the majority of fans saw the supporter stunt for the first time, it’s become arguably even more synonymous with City than its creators.

It was 2010, and the blue half of Manchester was hosting Lech Poznań in the group stage of the Europa League, but despite a 3-1 victory on the grass itself, more eyes were fixed on the stands themselves.

An army of 6,000 loyal Lech Poznań fans travelled for the game and had the ground quite physically bouncing with a shade of slightly darker blue, so when Emmanuel Adebayor wrapped up a hat-trick, the home support decided to turn the jubilation on their opponents and do it themselves.

It was all in good spirit, of course, but it went down a pretty instant hit with City fans and has only grown more prevalent and regular ever since.

Perhaps one of the funniest sights in recent years is Noel Gallagher being too hungover to join in, which also led to one of the coldest-looking images of the songwriter ever, and one that was quickly dubbed a perfect album cover for the next High Flying Birds album or, who knows, maybe another Oasis record?…

Ok, this is still up there in the cover art competition too.

So, yeah: that’s pretty much the long and short of it, we just thought it would help if we quickly explained the Poznań to anyone wondering why Oasis fans have been doing it.

Basically, if it was that big over in Wales, don’t be surprised if you see a literal sea of people flood Heaton Park before turning their backs to the stage, which seems to be triggered once Liam introduces ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol.’ It’ll be interesting to see if Man United fans get involved.

And finally, just imagine how much more epic this is going to be back home in Manchester as we brace for quite possibly the biggest headline gig the region has ever seen…

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — TNT Sports (screenshot)/Oasis (via X)

More Sport

Outdoor clothing brand Arc'teryx to open flagship store in Manchester this week

Shopping

Outdoor clothing brand Arc’teryx to open flagship store in Manchester this week

AngryGinge arrested at F1 British GP

Crime

Streamer AngryGinge ‘arrested and banned’ from Silvestone at the British GP

Ricky Hatton coming out of retirement for middleweight fight

Manchester

Boxing legend Ricky Hatton is coming out of retirement after more than a decade

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches