Is football entertaining?

[Kit Kat Chunky]

I've actually enjoyed most games at Albion this year and found the games last season awful. I'm enjoying going up, which is why although Bruce is doing rubbish so far I'm inclined to not quite pull the trigger yet.

But whether football generally is entertaining is a bigger question.

The Prem isn't. I hope Man C canter it, which already seems obvious, and I hope it becomes even more dull and predictable than it is so something is done about making it more competitive.

However, Champ is good fun. It is good quality an unpredictable like the Prem/Div 1 used to be until the sheer weight of money sewed it up for a handful of clubs.

I recall the football of the 70s and 80s as a kid not being as high quality as now due to obvious advancements in pitch quality and fitness. The back pass to the keeper where he can't pick the ball up was the best rule invented in the past 40 years.

However, then top level football was so much more equal that it made it exciting.

I have to disagree Span. For me it was changing from two points to three for a win, to encourage teams to draw less games. Maybe Bruce isn’t aware of the change in this rule.  

The worst thing was the home team keeping 100% of gate receipts, rather than sharing them. That was the start of big club domination and the end of the underdog.

[Ted Maul]

All you want to see is a setup in place that is designed to;

- Run sustainably, no bankrolling, dodgy sponsorship deals, owners with questionable human rights records.
- An emphasis on producing home grown talent.
- A coach actually capable of coaching players in a system that gives us the best chance of winning the game ahead of us. Potter was brilliant at this at Brighton.
- A network of scouts capable of finding value abroad and bringing it into the team.

I've no desire to see us ran as some billionaire plaything. Style of play means little, if we put the above in place people will have far more patience with the process.

This is exactly how I feel. But I would add that I like my club to have an identity. We had it for years when Ashworth was in charge. 

We tended to play swift counterattacking football built on a sound and solid, if not a tad boring, backline. And that was fine. Yes we veered a few times, but by and large our successful spells came using the above method (Hodgson, Clarke being the prime examples)

To me those four points are the 'identity' you know exactly what you're going to get. What happens on the pitch is a horses for courses approach to winning as many games as possible underpinned by the above.

[backsidebaggie]

I've actually enjoyed most games at Albion this year and found the games last season awful. I'm enjoying going up, which is why although Bruce is doing rubbish so far I'm inclined to not quite pull the trigger yet.

But whether football generally is entertaining is a bigger question.

The Prem isn't. I hope Man C canter it, which already seems obvious, and I hope it becomes even more dull and predictable than it is so something is done about making it more competitive.

However, Champ is good fun. It is good quality an unpredictable like the Prem/Div 1 used to be until the sheer weight of money sewed it up for a handful of clubs.

I recall the football of the 70s and 80s as a kid not being as high quality as now due to obvious advancements in pitch quality and fitness. The back pass to the keeper where he can't pick the ball up was the best rule invented in the past 40 years.

However, then top level football was so much more equal that it made it exciting.

I have to disagree Span. For me it was changing from two points to three for a win, to encourage teams to draw less games. Maybe Bruce isn’t aware of the change in this rule.  

The worst thing was the home team keeping 100% of gate receipts, rather than sharing them. That was the start of big club domination and the end of the underdog.

+1. This was the thin end of what is now a bloody massive wedge.

[Bob Fossil]

I've actually enjoyed most games at Albion this year and found the games last season awful. I'm enjoying going up, which is why although Bruce is doing rubbish so far I'm inclined to not quite pull the trigger yet.

But whether football generally is entertaining is a bigger question.

The Prem isn't. I hope Man C canter it, which already seems obvious, and I hope it becomes even more dull and predictable than it is so something is done about making it more competitive.

However, Champ is good fun. It is good quality an unpredictable like the Prem/Div 1 used to be until the sheer weight of money sewed it up for a handful of clubs.

I recall the football of the 70s and 80s as a kid not being as high quality as now due to obvious advancements in pitch quality and fitness. The back pass to the keeper where he can't pick the ball up was the best rule invented in the past 40 years.

However, then top level football was so much more equal that it made it exciting.

I have to disagree Span. For me it was changing from two points to three for a win, to encourage teams to draw less games. Maybe Bruce isn’t aware of the change in this rule.  

The worst thing was the home team keeping 100% of gate receipts, rather than sharing them. That was the start of big club domination and the end of the underdog.

+1. This was the thin end of what is now a bloody massive wedge.

Agree. The lust for Premier League dominance has all been based around the global sell-ability of the rich clubs, so it has been a gradual squeezing of every other aspect of the game.
Whether it be:

The minimalizing of the cup competitions so that they are no more than a side show, but are still likely to be won by one of the preferred clubs
The ability of the richer clubs to pillage the academies of lower league clubs, with no financial obligations.
The constant media circus surrounding all those at the top of the food chain, whilst barely knowing what colour Lincoln or Rotherham play in.
The additional cushion of VAR to ensure that the powers that be have an extra level of control, should they need it.
Referees so terrified of being publicly vilified by the likes of Klopp, that they cannot possibly be impartial, if only on a subconscious level

It's all led to this point where it is nothing more than a glorified global soap opera and has little to do with the supporter shuffling through the turnstiles.

I'm just so glad that I was around in the 70's 80's and 90's and got to see football when it was still a raw, working class game, rather than a sport,  played by millionaires, to support the whimsy of billionaires.

[MassDebater]

I saw the last twenty or so minutes of Spurs v Leicester that was terrrificly entertaining

[Ournextstriker]

Arse,Spuds and Manc C have been playing some good stuff this season

Most of the other Prem teams are struggling or pragmatically staying in games to grab points

[KRO]

Very rarely as a bottom third Championship club

[Tom Joad]

Is it just our club, (which appears to be in a bad place right now)? I'm finding there is a lot more interest in football now but it is all concentrated on the top 6 or the champions league. Places down (rural) South had very little interest in going to football when I lived there nearly 40 years ago. Now when I visit I notice everyone has a prem club and they all watch on sky. They still don't go, mind.
Personally I watch little other than Albion and Internationals nowadays. I've rarely watched a MOTD this season and even lose track of who is playing and when. Oddly enough, maybe it was the enforced break, but I'm enjoying matchdays more than ever.