marty, he's not a retired business man sitting on 500mil, or some trust fund baby who's only real concern is spending money. He has a job/career/whatever, and he runs numerous business ventures.

If I had to guess, there are probably hundreds of things he wishes he has time to do, but can't because he has work to do. I mean, this guy got rich through working his ass off, not by getting lucky.

For someone with a rigorous schedule, watching them on TV is probably the easiest way for him to catch games. If he is actually planning on living in London for a while, maybe he'll make it to more games.

i think we all know this discussion won't be resolved until fa.tsh.aft, the great arbiter of real football fan-ness, has had his say

Gercha cow son GERCHA

ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL

all this and he still finds time to go watch 4 hour long baseball games

--

i thought Arsenal fans would have wanted Kronke to buy whatever shares that are available.

where is my avatar cashy?

-60 points and unlikely anybody will get worse

he lives in NYC. Getting to games is probably absurdly easy for him

LOL at thinking he stays for the whole game too.

Its not over yet, Marty. I still have a chance to win the week.

Oski is still in it(winning wise) with his +110 vs my +120

i kinda agree with what hoopie is saying, it is pretty crappy but that is how it works now. every new investor/owner seems bad from a football perspective. russians, sheiks, boorish americans trying to earn a dime on the back of a club's fan base, know-nothing rappers, they all suck hard. its not realistic for there to be some "real" fan billionaire that cares about his team and the sport buying most teams.

the real fan debate is so completely and utterly pointless. are most owners real fans? no. they are rich ****ers usually who want a team and they don't have that many options available. they pick one that seems attractive, fits their budget, or whatever and go from there. i don't think sheikh mansour has been a city fan since childhood. and glazers, gillett, hicks etc are all just cads so its not as if jay z would be worse than them, just not ideal.

i actually want hoopie to finish last tho btw

i can give him something like this then

i want Hoopie to finish last too

lets hope he has his banker on Stoke v Villa and he loses.

This debate is ****ing stupid in regards to Arsenal. Unlike many other teams, its ownership is structured to make is almost impossible to be "bought on a whim," or to be bought as a viable investment. As is goes a buyer who tries to consolidate the purchase all at once will be forced to severely overpay. This protects the team from the likes of Gillet and Hicks, et al. The price will be so high no soft profits can be sucked out of the team.

Also, the team isn't exactly looking for a white knight - it is a financially sound club (if not rich) and it would not be receptive to a billionaire buyer a la Man City.

If Jay Zee buys in, it will be for no more than 20% and he gets to take his place along side all the other (relatively) silent investors.

Nothing to see here; move along.

hoppie, what are your thoughts on Obama being a west ham fan?

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/85/en...all-supporters

ship dr.dre (lol justin timberlake)

Osama Bin Laden actually went to an Arsenal game disguised as a non-terrorist, that is one true fan imo.


Prop bet for Pool vs Man utd game: if pool lose i use a justin timberlake avatar for a week , if utd lose you use a dr dre avatar for a week.

Oski you have to be cheating somehow. **** cant be real

TBH, I have developed a formula.

Before I got banned last year, I was playing with BC's group and doing poorly. I put some thought into how to approach this game and I have used my system since week one. Mason Malmuth would likely call this a "self weighting" strategy (meaning it is statistically due to fail). However, handicapping formulas in the context of a handicapping "game" may prove to be a different story.

We shall see.

BTW, I forgot to put my Banker in this week which was to be the Fulham game. I had placed my picks prior to the Interlol and was going to double check everything prior to this Saturday. However, I had an early tee time yesterday and forgot about it.

yeah the buyout clause for buying % of shares is the same at arsenal as it was at United, we made more ££ than any club in the world annually until the glazers took over, theres no reason why it could'nt happen to arsenal.

eh, yes and no. I agree sort of with you here. But at the same time, its unlikely any board would agree to a Glazer like buyout again after seeing what has happened at United. In addition, Arsenal and United are far more expensive now than they were when the Glazers took over, so the amount one will have to overpay has gone up significantly.

Knowing his character, for him to say he wants to invest in a soccer (of all sports) club I can almost be sure he has been following them on a weekly basis. The dude is a sports fanatic and has a lot of free time still.

the board is all the majority shareholders right? if they're getting hugeamounts of ££ for their % most likely they dont really give a fk who buys it.

I'm not saying a takeover will happen or is likely, just trying to point out that just because arsenal is financially well run does'nt mean it can't happen.

30% ownership is the threshold to make a bid for the remaining shares, and the way the club ownership is structured, it will be tough to get to 30%, especially as a random. So I am not too worried about a Glazerlike buyout is coming unless 2-3 big share holders need/want to sell quickly. They are all stuffy old ****s though, who seem concerned with who owns the team and its future health/interests.

All that definitely doesn't mean it can't happen though, I agree with you there. Thats partially why fans have been paying attention to Usmanov and Kroenke, since both are close to the 30% threshold.

Another classic youtube video:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PpYa...e_gdata_player

Not as good as the watermelon but will have you laughing.

Also for what it's worth I'm with hoppie as well.

Fine, we'll book it. You're right that I've been way too slack chasing it up so it looks really shady calling it off now. FWIW I would have sent you the same PM regardless of recent results but you've only got my word on that.

I accept that the wording makes it sound like I might want bets with multiple people but I also think it should be blindingly obvious that I am not offering an unlimited number of $100 bets to a forum full of people I don't know. Were you under the impression that if 20 people quoted the post, I was booking 2K in bets to 20 random strangers? If I wanted to book 2K in bets why would I cap individual bets at 100? The idea of quoting the post to book (as opposed to PMing me) is that the whole thread can see who books the bet first. I figured all this was pretty self evident but I'll be more explicit in the future.

btw if I wanted more action on this line (which I don't) it would still be on City (at longer odds obv). Arsenal are very reliable on Fabregas imo and City have huge strength in depth. Arsenal have the edge on them at this stage of the season but once Champions League etc commitments start, City's depth will start to tell.