The independent Bristol Rovers website
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gassed Off lets off steam about being told what to like...

Reading articles from last Saturday's programme and on the official site, it seems that there is a concerted effort to persuade us all that winning (winning winning) is everything, with entertainment very much a secondary concern. The unofficially official line running through these pieces - no doubt inspired by recent complaints about style of play and performance - is that it is not the game but the result that counts.

While that is true on one level (it is, after all, points that will get us promoted - or not) entertainment is also important. Ray Graydon was not, in my opinion at least, right - as one contributor wrote - when he said that he wasn't there to entertain fans. Why? Well, if you don't entertain fans then they'll stay away. If they stay away there is less cash coming in. If there is less cash coming in you'll have less to spend. Etcetera, etcetera. And the reality of that is clear to see because the fact is that Rovers' crowds have dropped after some less impressive results and performances. Not only that but reading the gasheads.com messageboard you come across posters who have either been less or are considering not going as much because they don't enjoy what's on offer - surely proof enough that winning is not everything? Plus, for every discontented person on a messageboard there must be dozens more outside of cyberland.

From a personal point of view, a goal or a win does not necessarily equal entertainment. We won on Saturday but entertaining it was not. And, as someone who hasn't got a season ticket, it doesn't make me want to pay the (not insignificant) money to get in, which basically means that there'll be quite a few occasions when Rovers does without my money, as well as the hard earned cash of others, this season.

Admittedly, at this stage, there is very little anyone can do and we are still perfectly capable of going up (after all there isn't too much competition). It's just that I dislike being told that I have to enjoy what's on offer when it's rank, that I should be ecstatic about watching dross (even if it is sometimes winning dross) and that, as a paying customer, I have no right to demand entertainment. Especially when the self same people were writing the same defences of Graydon a year ago. Oh, and one other thing. I guess I just may forgive the seemingly prozac-induced ramblings of these lecturers if they did one thing: ask Geoff Dunford - a man who was happy to criticise Graydon's style of football - whether he still expects entertainment?


Is there something making you mad? Write us a RANT and click here to send it to gasheads.com
Read the RANT of the week archive here
 

© gasheads.com 2004