Championship or Prem? Do you care?

I do. And I'm happy where we are. Especially after games like Doncaster. Games and entertainment like that are the main reason I enjoy going to the footy. If we get promoted that will come to an end.

At the moment we get a game every few days it seems like - and we never know what to expect. Would it be nice if we were seeing Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal at the Reebok? Yes, it would be nice if it were fun to go to the games - but it usually isn't. 

I don't care too much if we keep playing Derby, Blackpool and Doncaster as long as I'm having fun. Yeah the club won't make as much money but from a pure enjoyment point of view it's Championship all the way for me...

But we're not going to attract any of the better players whilst in the championship, I do like that's it's more competitive for us, but I'd rather we were in the Premiership.  We can't win the champions league while were in this league

From a pure enjoyment focus then yes I absolutely agree, it is more fun being in the championship as we have a realistic chance of winning the league and a trophy unlike the premier league.  Plus we get to play a lot of teams that have a lot of history and it's a nice change to play the teams in the championship unlike the premier league.

On the other hand it has to be the premier league as we need the money and I feel that we have a good chance of going bust with the debt standing at £120M+.

For me, it's about seeing my hometown make a name for itself, not necessarily having the likes of United, Arsenal, Chelsea etc in town. 

It's awful seeing the likes of West Brom, a similarly sized club that we might have looked upon with pity until a few years ago, making a solid PL outfit of themselves on a sensible budget.

I'd feel happy about where we are if the accounts made for good reading, but we've gone into a lot of debt to have the players, managers, coaches that we wanted.

I don't agree it's more entertaining at this level, their is very little quality just teams full of sloggers.

I quite enjoy having more games but in terms of entertainment you can give me the premier leauge anyday of the week.

prem

I like both, but for me its the Championship. We can have a game and we can win , lose, or whatever, but we have a much better chance of having an entertaining game in the Championship, than going out on a Saturday in the PL, with the sole aim of keeping the defeat to a minimim. If you lose you dont want to see the goals against from 26 different angles, and if you win, its because the 'bigger' team didn't play well.

Could you imagine us in the PL at the moment getting battered week in week out, even if we play well getting ripped apart by pure quality .

It has to be the championship for me.

Has to be the highest league we can achieve otherwise what is the point in following football at all?

The concept is the better you do the higher you rise, so if you want us to win and keep winning then it is fairly obvious that we need to go up from the Championship into the Premier, even though that might result in weekly batterings and grim football for the next season or so until we get established or get sent down - only to try to do it all over again.

Sluffy, we.ve been there too often recently, and it gets me really depressed. A season or two in the Championship is helpimg me to recharge my faith in the game, and the team,. Not too much at the moment, but at least in this league we can see the end of the tunnel when we go through a bad patch. I also want us in the PL but for now we need to regroup and start again, which, to me, is all part of the overall game.

I only talk hypothetically really Glos.

At the end of the day the club is run as a business (a multi-million pound one at that) and not as an entertainment, which strictly speaking football is.

I've said on here before that I can't understand the clubs financial position, in that the club is owned on paper by one man - Eddie Davies and he is shown to have pumped about £120 million of his own money into it - which is quite impressive when his personal wealth can be shown to be about £30 million short of that amount when it was at his maximum wealth - before the recession hit.

Logic would suggest that financially it is far better to have our snout in the Sky Premier trough than be scratching about for acorns in the Championship - but maybe the wealth 'behind' the club is happy simply not to be in the Premier with all that it entails and simply take the interest repayments on the loan invested in the club?

There's an old adage that says that if you want to know the truth then follow the money.

It will be interesting what if anything Freedman will have to spend in January - this will probably show how serious the club is about moving up to the Premier or is happy enough to sit in this league for a time.

I have said previously, that I am happy for this season to be a transitional one, I don't think it would benefit us by getting promoted this season.

For me we need to do as well as we can this season, if promotion occurs at the end of it, then good, we get the Sky money, but battered every week, and we get relegated, my question is, would it not be better to try to blood the youth by introducing them slowly during the rest of the season, get Holden and Mavies back, then go hell for leather next season with talented youth, and a mix of older heads?.

Surely we will be better equipped next season to give a good go with the likes of Ngog, Knight, Mears off the wage bill we will have the luxury of bringing in the players needed to get out of this division, remember the team that got us up last time? no superstars, just honest to goodness grafters who gave 100% week in week out, and this is what I believe Freedman is building towards.

Why do people think our 'youths' are going to be any good?

The development side is certainly not outstanding this season - in their own league - so why are they suddenly going to be able to cut it in the Championship?

What is to stop Holden and Mavies breaking down again and having another six months or so off - our even never get back to being anything like as good as they were?

Why give up the chance of something like £60 million pounds for missing out a season in the Premier just because we probably will lose every game - what make people think we will be a stronger team by staying down yet another year - we will have significantly less money and a much weaker team than the clubs relegated from the Premier as each season goes by.

Just wishful thinking in my opinion.

If we have a chance to go up we have to take it with both hands in my opinion - it simply does not make any practical or financial sense otherwise.

The Premier League is the be all and end all as far as financial stability is concerned. The top twenty by far and away pull in the biggest revenue. Personally speaking, I have enjoyed the atmosphere more in the Championship but the downside of having to stay up till midnight on Saturday to listen to the pontifications of Leroy Rosenior and Steve Claridge is taking the piss.

Short memories ladies ! The Prem is the place we have to be and need to be.Beating the Red Shite,bag snatchers and having Wenger frothing at the mouth are just memories that we need to repeat not getting carried away by beating Doncaster ffs !!!!!! It was a roller coaster while we were there but what a roller coaster !!!! Europe ffs !!! We must always strive to achieve the best, as we do in life,or what is the point ? COYWM

It seems that the argument has become about money. The up side to being in the perm means the club make more money. But what good is that, really, to you or me?

Is your enjoyment of winning on Saturday and seeing good football less fulfilling than if we had just lost 6-0 against united? Which day out did you enjoy more?

And there lies my point. There are more enjoyable days out as a fan if your team is playing better. And there are more opportunities for those days out if you play more games.

Championship wins it.

Forget about money for a minute.

Do you want the team to do well - yes or no?

Of course you do.

To do well means promotion to the highest possible division - not hanging about in the division below because you are scared we might get beat all the time.

I doubt teams like Southampton, Swansea, Cardiff, Norwich etc really thought they would cut it in the Premier league but most of them are doing well - just four seasons ago they were all in the league below us and Norwich and Southampton the one below that!

Doing well means as achieving at the highest level you can.

Otherwise you might as well start wanting Bolton to lose just so they won't get promoted - which is just stupid.

Therefore it has to be the Premier.

People are mixing up attainment with entertainment.

"If you want to be entertained then go to the circus" - Bruce Rioch, Bolton Wanderers manager.

Someone is a grumpy Grinch today!!!  

For me entertainment speaking it has to be the Championship!!  Premiership is too boring and when there thee greatest achievement is survival rather than trying to get promotion into Europe or Champions League.

At this moment we are mid-table no one looking for promotion and at least 3 games safe from the relegation zone and I am enjoying it big style.

Business speaking - well I have said it before and not going through it all again - we have the security and through many schemes Eddie HAS the money to keep us going! (never believe stories in magazines, especially football ones because they never have the full information - especially about individuals due to data protection acts and as such it is all guesswork with what they come up with!).  But again business speaking sure enough the better you are the higher you climb and the more money you get - but at what cost?  Staying up there costs money as can be seen by how much the likes of United, Chelsea and City pay - but what happens if the bubble bursts, like it did with Wigan Rugby League when they started their rot after 20+ years of success???

I think this thread needs doing twice. Once after hammering Doncaster at home and once after we lose 2-0 at Yeovil. We've spent more time in the bottom half of the table in the 18 months since we were relegated than in the top. There's only that three month period at the end of last season where we have been at all consistent, and even then the football was ugly. So I don't feel more confident going into each Championship game that we'll play entertaining football and get a result. Even if I did, our aspirations as a Championship club are higher than as a Premiership club, meaning each individual win is less valuable.

doffcocker wrote: after we lose 2-0 at Yeovil.

Please don't say that Doffy. A few of us are planning to go for the weekend. Huish Park is somewhere I have never had the pleasure of visiting so I'm saving up by skipping away games to Barnsley, Reading, QPR, Ipswich and Millwall.