Entertainment or promotion?

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Apologies to those on phones who probably can't see the poll.

One of the more regular debates on here in recent times has been about the quality of football, with reminiscences about the Dave Jones era being quite common.

So, over to you. Would you rather be entertained as we were (sometimes) under Dave Jones, or would you rather win promotion under Malky or Warnock?

[the other bob wilson]

Apologies to those on phones who probably can't see the poll.

One of the more regular debates on here in recent times has been about the quality of football, with reminiscences about the Dave Jones era being quite common.

So, over to you. Would you rather be entertained as we were (sometimes) under Dave Jones, or would you rather win promotion under Malky or Warnock?

So much depends on the timing with this question. If you'd have asked it ten years ago, I would definitely have voted for promotion because our side then could be very entertaining, but couldn't take the final step to promotion, but having now experienced two promotions and found that I don't like us being in that division as much as I thought I would (of course, I'd probably think differently if we were able to establish ourselves at that level for a while) and became completely bored and frustrated by the way we've played the game for the last six or seven years, I have now voted entertainment.

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

Do they have to be mutually exclusive?

[the other bob wilson]

Do they have to be mutually exclusive?

The evidence of most, not all, of the football we played in 12/13 and 17/18 suggests it has to be at Cardiff anyway.

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

The evidence of most, not all, of the football we played in 12/13 and 17/18 suggests it has to be at Cardiff anyway.

Fair enough

[xsnaggle]

But shirley, for the majority ofv fans the two things go hand in hand.
To get promoted you have to have a side that wins games.
Most fans pay to go and watch their team win, not to watch pretty football while the lose every week.
So entertainment equates to your team winning which equates to promotion (Or the promise of it).

[the other bob wilson]

But shirley, for the majority ofv fans the two things go hand in hand.
To get promoted you have to have a side that wins games.
Most fans pay to go and watch their team win, not to watch pretty football while the lose every week.
So entertainment equates to your team winning which equates to promotion (Or the promise of it).

Nine times out of ten I’d agree with you, but, increasingly, I don’t enjoy City wins as much as I did because of the way we play the game. I’d enjoy another promotion even if it was achieved playing Warnockball, but there’d also be a distinct feeling that we’d be heading straight back down again if we kept on playing the same way.

[Bobby Dandruff]

Do they have to be mutually exclusive?

I don’t think so.

Look at the the football that Leeds play. And Brentford, Bournemouth and the JBs (admittedly they haven’t been promoted yet but have finished in the playoff positions)

And if you look at the Premier League, I think that most people who watch Man City, and the Liverpool of the previous two seasons would say that it was entertaining.

[xsnaggle]

Nine times out of ten I’d agree with you, but, increasingly, I don’t enjoy City wins as much as I did because of the way we play the game. I’d enjoy another promotion even if it was achieved playing Warnockball, but there’d also be a distinct feeling that we’d be heading straight back down again if we kept on playing the same way.

Absolutely. Getting up and staying up are 2 different jobs, and for different jobs you need different tools.

[Jimmy the Jock]

Apologies to those on phones who probably can't see the poll.

One of the more regular debates on here in recent times has been about the quality of football, with reminiscences about the Dave Jones era being quite common.

So, over to you. Would you rather be entertained as we were (sometimes) under Dave Jones, or would you rather win promotion under Malky or Warnock?

I am going to struggle to go back to watch the dire football we have been served up in recent years . Mick is just a follow on to Neil .
If we were to be promoted playing the stuff we are currently playing all I could see is embarrassing result after embarrassing result.
Cardiff need a dynamic manager to re shape the club never mind the football we are watching . I don't see that happening
any time soon.
So , lets be entertained in the championship as we try to put together a football style that would give us a glimmer of hope should we actually get promoted.

[dml1954]

Some people have very short memories. The two recent promotion season were fantastic and very enjoyable. We won the Championship title in 2013 for goodness sake and in 2018 got a record 90 points and there were some excellent performances/games as well. I never thought I would ever watch City in the Premier League, so they were both a bonus. The time to start worrying about what brand of football the team plays is when you are an established Premier League club. Getting out of the Championship and staying up is a battle. Also anyone who thinks that Swansea are playing free flowing, attractive football this season is deluded and cant have seen them play. The ‘lump it’ forward more than most and are very defensive minded. Promotion every time for me and worry about the brand of football later.

[Stanmore Bluebird]

Some people have very short memories. The two recent promotion season were fantastic and very enjoyable. We won the Championship title in 2013 for goodness sake and in 2018 got a record 90 points and there were some excellent performances/games as well. I never thought I would ever watch City in the Premier League, so they were both a bonus. The time to start worrying about what brand of football the team plays is when you are an established Premier League club. Getting out of the Championship and staying up is a battle. Also anyone who thinks that Swansea are playing free flowing, attractive football this season is deluded and cant have seen them play. The ‘lump it’ forward more than most and are very defensive minded. Promotion every time for me and worry about the brand of football later.

100% agree with these spot-on comments.

[the other bob wilson]

Some people have very short memories. The two recent promotion season were fantastic and very enjoyable. We won the Championship title in 2013 for goodness sake and in 2018 got a record 90 points and there were some excellent performances/games as well. I never thought I would ever watch City in the Premier League, so they were both a bonus. The time to start worrying about what brand of football the team plays is when you are an established Premier League club. Getting out of the Championship and staying up is a battle. Also anyone who thinks that Swansea are playing free flowing, attractive football this season is deluded and cant have seen them play. The ‘lump it’ forward more than most and are very defensive minded. Promotion every time for me and worry about the brand of football later.

So far, eight teams have been promoted to the Premier League since we last went up and by a conservative estimate I’d say seven of them were more attractive to watch than us (I thought Watford were pretty boring to watch this season), to argue that sides have to play like we do to achieve success in the Championship is plainly not true.

Anyway, the question is entertainment or promotion? At the huge majority of clubs it would be a pointless question because there would be far more saying promotion, so it shows how bad things have got here that, albeit with a very small sample, there are more people favouring entertainment over promotion as I write this.

[Jimmy the Jock]

Some people have very short memories. The two recent promotion season were fantastic and very enjoyable. We won the Championship title in 2013 for goodness sake and in 2018 got a record 90 points and there were some excellent performances/games as well. I never thought I would ever watch City in the Premier League, so they were both a bonus. The time to start worrying about what brand of football the team plays is when you are an established Premier League club. Getting out of the Championship and staying up is a battle. Also anyone who thinks that Swansea are playing free flowing, attractive football this season is deluded and cant have seen them play. The ‘lump it’ forward more than most and are very defensive minded. Promotion every time for me and worry about the brand of football later.

Some people have extremely short memories. Malkys football was in general, football to make your eyes bleed. Last 10 minutes of every game was petrifying as we hung on to our one nil lead. It certainly wasn't free flowing entertaining football by any ones standards.
Warnocks football was only entertaining when Tomlin played other wise it was dire. The promotion was ok , we were never going to survive in the premier league. It wasnt even fun .
So you are correct some people have short memories ,or amazing imaginations.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

So much depends on the timing with this question. If you'd have asked it ten years ago, I would definitely have voted for promotion because our side then could be very entertaining, but couldn't take the final step to promotion, but having now experienced two promotions and found that I don't like us being in that division as much as I thought I would (of course, I'd probably think differently if we were able to establish ourselves at that level for a while) and became completely bored and frustrated by the way we've played the game for the last six or seven years, I have now voted entertainment.

Not long after I posted this poll, the timing of the question situation entered my head. During our promotion seasons, I doubt many would have traded our position for more entertainment. In fact, I reckon that would have been the position when Harris's side got into the playoffs. Like you said, I reckon most would have voted promotion during the end of Dave Jones's reign out of frustration with not making the final step. Conversely, there's been a desire for entertainment when the side hasn't really threatened, thinking of the Russell Slade era and this season just finished. In other words, if the team is doing well, fans in general care much less about how good the football is.

Of course the Jones = entertaining and Warnock = boring equations aren't strictly true. Jones's sides could produce clueless boredom when they had been looking invincible for weeks, while some of the stuff at the start of Warnock's promotion season was superb to watch. But, as generalisations, they are accurate enough.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Some people have extremely short memories. Malkys football was in general, football to make your eyes bleed. Last 10 minutes of every game was petrifying as we hung on to our one nil lead. It certainly wasn't free flowing entertaining football by any ones standards.

I think some people have short memories as well. I'd certainly say that was true of most of our promotion season and our time in the Premier League with him, but in Malky's first season we had a side that did play some good stuff, with a grit and desire that was missing in previous seasons.

[Hilts]

I go to see us win. So promotion.

We werent exactly a passing side under Jones.

Put Bothroyd in Malkys team and we would really have been a quality side.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Ref blows whistle

City score more goals than the other team

Ref blows whistle at end of game

City win

[dml1954]

Ref blows whistle

City score more goals than the other team

Ref blows whistle at end of game

City win

[LeningradCowboy]

I want us to play good quality football, but I'm not too bothered whether it's counter-attacking, direct, possession-based, or whatever.

[The Lone Gunman]

We werent exactly a passing side under Jones.

[jon1959]

Very disappointing that the LFW option hasn't got more support.

[NYCBlue]

I just voted Leo.

I want us to be good. I want respect.

[Moodybluebird]

Ask yourself the question, "If your first taste of watching football was that being served up by a Warnock/Harris/McCarthy side would you really want to come back for more ?"

I was lucky in that I got hooked by watching the Scoular-managed team of the 60's. No promotions but on many an occasion a joy to watch.

[UNDERHILL1927]

If you go to the football and aren't devestated with a loss because we played good football, then I don't know what to say to you.

A win over the quality of the football every time.