Is football just about winning?

WallyA

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Curious on the collective thoughts on this issue:

Personal opinion:

If a team plays football very pragmatically with class players and can win trophies, but are also boring to watch then would you be happy?
Does the one trophy you win at the end overcome the hours of boredom you had to go through?

To me, if it's not entertaining then I just don't see the point, even if City can only manage one trophy (or none hypothetically) but we play amazingly throughout but just lose out on singular games that get us eliminated, I would still have been entertained.

Some of my friends aren't even City fans, some don't even watch the Premier League and only watch La Liga, but they'll watch City if their team isn't playing because they simply want to be entertained, and they know they'll get it.

/end rant.
 
At the end of the day, as even Pep acknowledges, it is about titles (and foreign coaches include cups as titles!).

While I can appreciate the ridiculous quality of the football being played...probably the best football ever played by any City team of any era...if it doesn’t result in the winning of trophies, it is lacking purpose.

Beautiful football just for the sake of it is masturabtory. Pep doesn’t want it, and you can be damned sure Mansour doesn’t want it! This team was built to win the Champions League, while filling out the domestic trophy cabinet along the way.

Anything less than last 8 in the CL, and winning at least one domestic trophy, would be a disaster for this team and this coach. I have to believe that the Premiership, possibly a domestic double, and a deep, deep run in the CL is what Khaldoon told Pep was the ask from Mansour. Within the next three years, I expect a CL trophy displayed in the Palace in Abu Dhabi to be his minimum ask. He has his man, he is providing everything needed to build the team his man wants, and people like Mansour don’t expect to be disappointed!

The future is blue...and it will be paved with beautiful football leading to silverware!
 
At the end of the day, as even Pep acknowledges, it is about titles (and foreign coaches include cups as titles!).

While I can appreciate the ridiculous quality of the football being played...probably the best football ever played by any City team of any era...if it doesn’t result in the winning of trophies, it is lacking purpose.

Beautiful football just for the sake of it is masturabtory. Pep doesn’t want it, and you can be damned sure Mansour doesn’t want it! This team was built to win the Champions League, while filling out the domestic trophy cabinet along the way.

Anything less than last 8 in the CL, and winning at least one domestic trophy, would be a disaster for this team and this coach. I have to believe that the Premiership, possibly a domestic double, and a deep, deep run in the CL is what Khaldoon told Pep was the ask from Mansour. Within the next three years, I expect a CL trophy displayed in the Palace in Abu Dhabi to be his minimum ask. He has his man, he is providing everything needed to build the team his man wants, and people like Mansour don’t expect to be disappointed!

The future is blue...and it will be paved with beautiful football leading to silverware!
My post was actually like a response to Pep's comment about winning trophies.

Obviously I want to win trophies, but I'm more personally interested in users answering the direct question I posted "Does the one trophy you win at the end overcome the hours of boredom you had to go through?"

Obviously I'm ecstatic about the current results and playstyle, my post is also a criticism of Mourinho's approach of win at all cost football.
 
I read the OP, thought I’d answered it in my first few sentences, and expanded on where I think we are going and don’t need to worry about it.

If Mourinho wins the League playing like he did at Liverpool, no one will care...least of all rags! They will laud his pragmatism as “Winning!”

Don’t forget, it wasn’t until this past weekend, when they played Liverpool away and we played a poor Stoke team at home, that we opened the gap! Mourinho is a “Horses for courses” manager, who approaches games away to top teams as a chance to grab a point and have them lose two, and he will try to take care of the other side of the business when he gets them in home turf. He knows, as everyone else does, that Utd teams will always get the run of the green against the lesser clubs, and many of them are still afraid of them and Old Trafford, so they will get their share of points from those lesser clubs.

Thankfully, Pep is a “philosophy” manager and will stick to it.
 
Years ago when the riches of today were not to be seen, football was more of an entertainment business, but it has become so commercialised these days that a win at any cost means only the fittest survive. I personally think our infrastructure is merging the two styles
 
Winning at all costs is not something that appeals to me whatsoever. It was once I suppose, in our darker days, but not now.

I despise the mentality that sits a whole team behind the ball. There's no joy in that and pragmatism doth butter no parsnips.
 
Our manager himself admitted "I'm not here to entertain, but to win". So winning comes first (as is the case with any sport) and if it comes with style, then all the better. Another point is that even a good defensive performance can be entertaining for some. Jose mentioned it after the Liverpool game that he saw the game different to the fans. I don't think any Chelsea fan felt their 2014/15 title win as boring.
 
I was thinking this sort of thing yesterday
If Jose won say the PL and a cup this year and we won nothing both playing their style of football, who's the better manager ?
 
It’s only ‘entertaining’ if you win. Who walks away from a 3-2 defeat and thinks ‘doesn’t matter we lost, what an entertaining game!’ Bollox. Fans boo. You walked out pissed off - aside from this, for 99% of teams, entertainment is not in there hands, so much depends on the opposition, refs decisions and other variables, a manager can’t just click his fingers and tell his players to go out there and ‘entertain’ whatever that means.
It’s all down to winning, some games you will win in style other times you have to grind it out.
 
Curious on the collective thoughts on this issue:

Personal opinion:

If a team plays football very pragmatically with class players and can win trophies, but are also boring to watch then would you be happy?
Does the one trophy you win at the end overcome the hours of boredom you had to go through?

To me, if it's not entertaining then I just don't see the point, even if City can only manage one trophy (or none hypothetically) but we play amazingly throughout but just lose out on singular games that get us eliminated, I would still have been entertained.

Some of my friends aren't even City fans, some don't even watch the Premier League and only watch La Liga, but they'll watch City if their team isn't playing because they simply want to be entertained, and they know they'll get it.

/end rant.

Personally I'd rather finish 2nd playing the way we do, than 1st playing like the rags. It is supposedly entertainment after all. So to me it's not just about winning but I can understand why our owners, players and manager might see it differently.

Of course best of all wold be to win trophies playing the way we do.
 

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