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?
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