What interests you more?

[Regia]

After having an interesting discussion with a few friends of mine, I thought I would put forward the discussion with you fine people.

Basically, what interests you, the Premier League, or the Football League. I don't mean where you would prefer to see your team playing, just in general. It can be for any particular reason, but which do you prefer?

Personally I prefer the Football League, just for the unpredictability of it all. In the Premier League there are only a couple of teams that people expect to win the league, and since there have only been 4 different PL winners, that seems justified. However, in the Football League there is always a chance for an outsider to come in and defy the odds. Seeing teams get promoted two season running, or seeing teams fall from grace interests me.

I mean, sure, the quality of the football is not always as great, but it is interesting to see a group of fixtures and not being entirely sure who will win, where as in the Premier League its a case of 'lets see if one of the big teams slips us this week'.

So what are your thoughts?

[Matt]

The football league because Leeds are in there, I won't give two shits when we get back to the Premier League.

[Baddar]

...which basically means, you'll be interested in the Football League for a good while longer.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Premier League because the team I support are there. Simple as. I couldn't care about the predictability or quality of a league, I just care about the teams that affect the success or failure of Tottenham.

If Spurs were in the Conference then that would be the most interesting league to me as I'm more emotionally involved in it.

Back in the day Serie A was seen as the best league in the world and I used to watch it on Channel 4 every week, however it was never as interesting as the Premier League as I wasn't emotionally invested in it.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Neither. I gave up on football a few years ago and until the hegemony at the top of the Premier League is properly broken up I'm not planning on going back because it renders everybody else's participation pointless.

[Colly]

The league I'm in frankly. I do keep an eye on the lower leagues, mainly for losing bets, but also to see how 'second teams' in Hartlepool and Bradford are getting on. The unpredictability of the Championship would soon disappear if promotion was scrapped, the fact the champions are no longer in it tends to help it feel fresh.

I loved our relegation year, but given half the Yorkshire teams I made trips to are in League 1 now (granted Leeds came up) its not the same.

[stokeriño]

The league I'm in frankly.

This is going to be the near-universal answer. The exceptions may be foreign fans (who I'm not sure can even get much Football League coverage) and Be, because Be is bitter.

[Matt]

...which basically means, you'll be interested in the Football League for a good while longer.

I'd keep quiet on the jokes for a couple of weeks.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Yeah Premier League here, because I'm limited to something like one Championship game a week unless I want to shell out $18/month for Sportsnet World.

[IAceI]

All of them. Everything about football interests me.

But do I suffer near heart attacks when I'm watching Carlisle United at Brunton Park? No.

Do I suffer from them at Sunderland matches? Yes. And that would be true whether we were playing Man Utd in the Premier League or Walsall in League One.

[Adam]

All of them. Everything about football interests me.

Same...I have a Newcastle-supporting mate and he's always surprised when I point out things I think every football fan in this country knows (related to the football league) and he has no idea because the only season he ever spent paying attention to the football league was when Newcastle were in the Championship in 2009/10.

I'm a football fan, I love the entire sport not just my team. I actually think I generally prefer watching the Premier League despite the fact my team is in the Championship, it's just more dramatic and exciting and I like seeing the best players competing against one another. Though I guess it doesn't help when the team you support plays like dog shit every week.

Edited October 24, 2011 by AdamDRFC

[NobBe Nobbs]

The league I'm in frankly.

This is going to be the near-universal answer. The exceptions may be foreign fans (who I'm not sure can even get much Football League coverage) and Be, because Be is bitter.

SPURS TOOK DARREN BENT AND BROKE HIM

[Lineker]

All of them. Everything about football interests me.

But do I suffer near heart attacks when I'm watching Carlisle United at Brunton Park? No.

Do I suffer from them at Sunderland matches? Yes. And that would be true whether we were playing Man Utd in the Premier League or Walsall in League One.

This. Replace Carlisle/Sunderland with Watford/Spurs though.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I kind of support Nagoya Grampus over here and have been to 8-10 of their games. They've never lost when I've been to see them.

Anyway, I don't get nervous when they concede or go behind or whatever, I just get annoyed. When Spurs go behind, or concede late, or are holding onto a one goal lead with 5 minutes of backs-to-the-wall defending to go then I get reeeeaaaally nervous and stressed.

So basically my support for Grampus is definitely support and I'm cheering when they score and win etc etc. However my support for Tottenham runs in my blood.

So Gillingham, Grampus, Ajax and Monaco get my cheers, Spurs have my heart.

[TCO]

I think this is a case of where your team is. When Newcastle were down in the Championsip, I cared and follwed that more than the Premier League. Seeing as we're riding high in the Premier LEague right now, I couldn't even tell you who's in the promotion spots without checking.

[jack95]

I agree with the consensus that it's whatever league your team is in, but if Charlton Athletic (my team) were to fold tomorrow, I still think it would be the Football League, just because it's impossible to predict. For example, I came into the season braving myself for a season of mid-table mediocrity at best for Charlton, but look at the start we've made! Top of the table, only one defeat, and I never would have predicted it at all... plus, there's still some decent football if you look in the right places; at their best, Brighton's play is orgasmic, while I'd put my money on teams like Southampton, West Ham and Middlesborough against Blackburn, Wolves or Wigan any day of the week.

[Adam]

I'd hardly tout the unpredictability of the football league with the example of Charlton doing well in League One, to be honest.

[jack95]

I'd hardly tout the unpredictability of the football league with the example of Charlton doing well in League One, to be honest.

Well, if you look at the appalling way we ended the 2010-2011 season, as well as the fact that we'd completely revamped the squad, and it's understandable why I and many others thought that we wouldn't gel, Chris Powell was not the man for the job, and we'd have another disappointing season, but instead the exact opposite has happened. True, we're one of the bigger clubs in League One, but stature doesn't always equal success; if that were true, we wouldn't have slid to where we were in the first place.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

To be fair you fell to where you were because of a terrible managerial decision.

[jack95]

I wouldn't say that. Iain Dowie and Les Reed were both appalling, but Alan Pardew definitely improved us when he took over and he probably would have kept us up had he been in the job the whole season. Then he struggled in the Championship, and Phil Parkinson took over. He couldn't save us from relegation, but he got us into the League One play offs and we only went out on a penalty shoot-out; we could have beaten Millwall in the finals, Definitely it was Dowie and Reed's combined ineptitude that took us down, but it's more bad luck that's brought us into and kept us in League One.