Interesting points raised about whether Norwich and Stoke have a duty to provide entertainment, which, at the moment is not really happening. http://services.pinkun.com/forums/pinkun/cs/blogs/norwich_and_beyond/archive/2013/04/26/2906107.aspx
an adrian durham sponsored article i firmly believe if we play it on the deck, we've a better chance of wining. trying to match them we've a better chance of drawing or losing.
Oh god, here we go again. No, they don´t have a duty to entertain, duty is too strong a word, especially if that ´duty´ should cost them their Premier League place, their prime obligation is to achieve success as a club, and if entertainment happens to follow along with that success, then so much the better. Some fans will always crave entertainment, even if that ultimately costs the club success, others will be quite happy to see prolonged success, with whatever level of entertainment that may provide. Such is the nature of the beast that is a football fan. You´ll very seldom please all of the people all of the time.
Why do people think that you shouldn't go to football matches and expect to be entertained? Are we expected to fill the stadium every other week through sheer boredom, sit on our hands and stay silent? Well I don't, I pay an awful lot of money every season to support my club and expect something back. Fair enough if we're scrapping at the bottom trying to avoid relegation, then boring football is acceptable for a while, but by definition you would still expect the team to be trying for wins, therefore giving the crowd some entertainment! What we've been getting until recently has not been very entertaining play neither have the results, but if it means survival then fine, but I just don't want to see this again next season, I want to entertained for my money!
I think duty is too strong a word. However, I think it is something a club should expect to provide in order to maintain its fanbase. I think clubs get it too easy because fans tend not to vote with their wallets when it comes to style of play. If more fans refused to go to matches when the style was poor, it would have a bigger impact on how teams played. It is very much a loyalty question and, oddly, I feel fans are sometimes too loyal to get what's best for them!
Good post, Rob. Football clubs are lucky to have a captive audience. If your favourite band brought out a new album and it was crap, you wouldn't buy or play it. However, it doesn't work that way with football clubs - apart from a few glory hunting plastics who will support whoever is "doing well" at any given time. Fortunately the yellow army are made of sterner stuff than that
The irony being, of course, that it is the much-derided plastics who are quite possibly getting value for money!!
The comparison with music is interesting. I think the price of a ticket for Grade A games is about £53 or thereabouts and for that you are going to get 90 plus minutes of .... well, who knows. It could be turgid gush (Nukes, Fulham, Saints), nerve jangling excitement (Man Ure, Everton), heart breaking kerap (Liverpool, Luton) or something in between ..... Depending on who you see live, you are going to be guaranteed "entertainment". I've got gigs lined up to see Rush (£65), Journey/Whitesnake (£45) and Clutch (£21) where I know I am going to get a minimum 90 minutes (120 with Rush) of top-class entertainment and excitement. However these bands don't gig every fortnight and if they did you wouldn't go and see them every fortnight would you unless their set list changed completely gig by gig. I love going to gigs and other stuff such as Air Shows and Truck Rallies and I love my fortnightly fix at Carrow Road even if it doesn't always "entertain", often disappoints and invariably frustrates. But when it all comes together and we get that 3 points, well, that's entertainment enough for me. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Winning is entertaining for me, however ugly. Would say that the costs of the tickets should reflect the quality of the football though, don't wanna pay £20 to watch that Southampton game again and that was a U16 ticket. Paid the same amount for Reading and even less for Wigan and got much better value for money.
Might be wrong but wasn't unattractive and negative football one of the reasons Chelsea and Special One parted company? Not sure that worked of for the club and fans. Teams and management have a primary duty to win matches. My view is that if that part is consistently achieved then other considerations can start to be addressed.
Might be wrong but wasn't unattractive and negative football one of the reasons Chelsea and Special One parted company? Not sure that worked of for the club and fans. Teams and management have a primary duty to win matches. My view is that if that part is consistently achieved then other considerations can start to be addressed.
Might be wrong but wasn't unattractive and negative football one of the reasons Chelsea and Special One parted company? Not sure that worked of for the club and fans. Teams and management have a primary duty to win matches. My view is that if that part is consistently achieved then other considerations can start to be addressed.
Entertainment first, winning second and success third. You can't always be entertained so it is accepted that you would be mad to think you will be on the edge of your seat each and every game. I believe if you entertain enough, you will win. It doesn't matter to me which division we are in because the club is part of my DNA so I don't have a choice to not support, watch whatever I can. Obviously the Prem is the top division and it is nice to be at the top. So if NCFC can play enough entertaining football, I believe by its very consequence, we would win enough games to be in the top division.
Nice thought redruth, but not necessarily so, in fact arguably the two most entertaining and attractively playing teams at the bottom, who´ve been struggling with relegation all year, are still the two who look most likely to fill that last relegation spot. The obvious example from the last few years of the one not producing the other, is Blackpool, who were extremely entertaining, but hopelessly unsuccessful. Entertainment will go hand in hand with success at the top end of the table, but very rarely does it go hand in hand in the bottom half, especially with clubs fighting against relegation.
I accept much of that RBF but I wonder if we polled the Blackpool supporters, those that turned up before the successful two seasons, whether or not they would do it all over again just to have one more season. And of course they were only relegated on the last day and at one stage were doing enough to stay up. And another inescapable reason is that most of the top clubs supporters rely and only enjoy success. They don't go to be entertained anymore. I prefer to be different to that not just for the sake of being different but because it is a good reason to be different. Also, I think Villa would be in my "top" teams league. It is only in the last couple of seasons, don't quote me, that they have been outside the top six or seven. Taken as an exercise in statistics, Wigan, if relegated are probably going back to where they belong. Using the same criteria of course, we might be considered as being on the cusp on being a Prem club.
I accept much of that RBF but I wonder if we polled the Blackpool supporters, those that turned up before the successful two seasons, whether or not they would do it all over again just to have one more season. And of course they were only relegated on the last day and at one stage were doing enough to stay up. And another inescapable reason is that most of the top clubs supporters rely and only enjoy success. They don't go to be entertained anymore. I prefer to be different to that not just for the sake of being different but because it is a good reason to be different. Also, I think Villa would be in my "top" teams league. It is only in the last couple of seasons, don't quote me, that they have been outside the top six or seven. Taken as an exercise in statistics, Wigan, if relegated are probably going back to where they belong. Using the same criteria of course, we might be considered as being on the cusp on being a Prem club.
I accept much of that RBF but I wonder if we polled the Blackpool supporters, those that turned up before the successful two seasons, whether or not they would do it all over again just to have one more season. And of course they were only relegated on the last day and at one stage were doing enough to stay up. And another inescapable reason is that most of the top clubs supporters rely and only enjoy success. They don't go to be entertained anymore. I prefer to be different to that not just for the sake of being different but because it is a good reason to be different. Also, I think Villa would be in my "top" teams league. It is only in the last couple of seasons, don't quote me, that they have been outside the top six or seven. Taken as an exercise in statistics, Wigan, if relegated are probably going back to where they belong. Using the same criteria of course, we might be considered as being on the cusp on being a Prem club.
Funnily enough I was just about to ask you the same thing, only with a slight twist. Do you think the Blackpool supporters, looking back today, would have wished that they had been a little bit less entertaining and a touch more stubborn back then, so that they might still be here today. Interesting, and hard to find exactly the right balance, I would say we were the exception to the rule last year with Lambert, and Southampton have been so this year, will watch them with interest next year.
Of course it does depend on the roster of players somewhat. Saints have always produced players who fit the entertainment bill. I don't ever remember them setting out their stall to defend. I also think we underestimate our contribution last year. I'm sure the neutrals would have placed us very highly in the "entertainment" league. Much of that was because of our "little"tag and our rapid phoenix like rise of course. Good thread this.
Theres a big difference between slogging it out for a year to stay up and improve your squad (as we WILL) than using the same boring tactics over and over every year just to stay up. Not every match is going to be el clasico, we do okay and will do better. What more of a statement do fans want that we will do better than an 8.5m striker who backheels it into the net regularly. I'm not sure why some 0-0 draws put people into a mental state.
