Arizona

Iran have a lot of trade restrictions which prevent them buying new aircraft. I think it's just the one 707, not sure.

A well maintained plane is fair enough, but I think 30 years old is really pushing it. The trouble is an older aircraft invariably gets less reliable, no matter how well maintained they are. They develop faults regularly and it can be only a matter of time before something serious happens.

The other way around for me. I've just moved to Germany and these sick b*stards don't have Jaffa Cakes.

Nice to here some good news for a change. I'd have chosen Davies any day of the week, but I guess beggars can't be chosers. Welcome aboard Jack. I only hope the inevitable OS puns on your name aren't too cringeworthy.

According to wiki, AA also has 58 MD-83s, which would bring the grand total to 300. They'll end up being dragged kicking and screaming out of service in about 10 years I reckon. Much like the 30 year old 727s which were still in the fleet until just after 9/11. F**k me we you trust a 30 year old plane....

I don't think it's accurate to say they were afraid to try. All 3 management structures played Lallana at some point last season. I saw him myself once or twice earlier in the season and was never really that excited. I am also not convinced that the players last season didn't care, more that they were lacking confidence, leadership and creativity.

Learnt his lesson with Pericard I think. After a somewhat dismal performance against Coventry he only made 2 or 3 late substitute appearances in the remaining 6 games. Don't forget Licka also made some decent appearances in the reserves, but was unable to reproduce that form consistently for the first team. It would seem that neither Burley, D&G nor Pearson thought he was ready for regular first team action at such a critical time.

Not slating old technology, just old aeroplanes. The MD80 was very good in its day. Trouble is it's day was in the 80s. Aircraft this old invariably have maintenance issuses, not to mention design flaws which have been engineered out of more modern aircraft. The MD80 does have quite a poor safety record compared to most modern aircraft. Spannair, NorthWest, Alaskan, SAS and American have all had fatal crashes, not just the Asian/African carriers. Compare this to only 5 fatal accidents ever involving western opperated Airbus'. P.S. American Airlines is on it's a*se.

Yep. The MD-80 is just a modified DC-9. Trouble is these modifications were made in the late 70's and the aircraft which crashed was 15 years old. Even so it's probably one of the youngest MD-80s in existance. According to reports it was the left engine that failed, which would have produced a fairly small yaw to the left, yet this aircraft came down a fair bit to the right of the runway, which would suggest there is more to it than just an engine failure. I guess we'll have to wait for the report to know what exactly. The DC-10 crashed a lot in the 70's, but has been fairly reliable since. The last accident I can recall was a Swissair MD-11 which crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia in '98 I think. All on board killed because the in flight entertainment overheated and killed the pilots. Tragic. Even so the DC-10s/MD-11s left are getting very long in the tooth.

Our first team avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth last season. I have faith that our youth team will survive, but I think even Man Utd's youth team would struggle to get promoted in CCC. To say we are playoff contenders is unrealistic IMO. If we are in the playoffs come the end of the season I will eat a small family hatch-back.

Ok. I think we can do without all of that and start again. Tragic accident it has to be said. RIP all those involved. Can only hazard a guess at what happened. Based on what I've seen on the news it was either an uncontained engine failure, which damaged the hydraulics at the rear of the aircraft, or the crew didn't react properly to the failure. Either way the MD-80s are old aircraft.

I'd regard Davies, Wright, Saganowski, Vignal and Rasiak as being good players. The rest were distinctly average, but I'd take most of them over our current crop TBH. I know it's early days, but 2 games and 2 defeats isn't really that much to get excited about.

I'd have thought if you replace the word 'month' with 'week' you'd be nearer the truth. If we assume: J. Wright - £6k R. Wright - £10k Vignal - £10k II - £12k Saga - £10k Rasiak - £12k Claus - £15k Powell - £10k Ostlund - £8k Hammill - £5k Baseya - £2k Licka - £4k Viafara - £10k Safri - £10k Lucketti - £5k Makin - £5k Pericard - £5k I make that £139k a week saved on wages. Now taking into account 4 or 5 signings on very low wages and assuming costs have been cut elsewhere. Closing corners, no busses etc. We're looking at over £600k a month saved compared to the a*se end of last season. I'm not ITK BTW, that's just maths.

Cannot see a case for getting rid of anyone before we get rid of BWP and Euell. Finding someone to take them off our hands may prove difficult, but surely there is someone out there. Skacel I'd keep just to make the football vaguely interesting to watch. I don't care if he waves and claps till his arms fall off, or he needs CPR after 60 minutes. He is one of the few players since we got relegated that I actually felt excited knowing he was going to play, or at least during the playoff season.

I'd tend to disagree. Up front: Where are the goals? John last season looked lost without Saganowski. BWP? DMG? Not convinced by any of them TBF. Midfield: No really experience there. No one to pull the strings but Wotton, who by all accounts lacks any real quality. Not much creativity other than the unfit, estate agent's wet dream that is Rudi Skacel. Defence: Svensson, Thomas, Perry and some kids. If Killer goes the whole season without injury I'll streak around Fratton Park. Perry is ancient and Thomas was hardly bullet-proof last season. GK: All in order hear, no complaints from me. Garbage though many of those players were, 3 different management teams picked them ahead of the players we have now. Is Schneiderlin really better than Licka? Is Hatch better than Wright? Is DMG better than Rasiak? You get the idea. I think there are two points we can agree on though: a) Yes we did have some crap last season b) Yes, we do need a RB.

It's a pretty safe statement IMO as: a) With the exception of Surman, I can't see anyone bidding for any of them. b) We really would be struggling to put out a team if any of the first 11 left.

Need a bit more than that IMO. Since the end of last season we have said goodbye too; Wright, Wright, Powell, Idiakez, Lucketti, Makin, Lundekvam, Poke, Pericard, Saganowski, Rasiak, Davies, Viafara, Safri, Hammill, Vignal, Ostlund, Licka and Baseya and brought in; Schneiderlin, Holmes, Svensson, Forecast and Wotton. That's 18 first team players, plus Baseya, replaced with 3 kids and 2 old timers with suspect recent fitness records. Even asuming Skacel, Euell, Davis and John stay, that is going to leave us very thin on the ground. Even at the start of the season with everyone fit and suspension free, we're being stretched. 4 or 5 injuries to the wrong players and we'd be struggling to put out a team.

TBH, playing on his own up front and with Saganowski gone, I can't see John getting any more than 10 goals this season anyway. Mind you, when you look at the players we'd have left, that is almost prolific. I hadn't been on this site for nearly 2 weeks before now. I come back and discover Davies and Rasiak have b*ggered off and we got beaten by Brum. I'm no Sir Allan Sugar, but surely if you keep cutting costs to the extent that you cannot deliver a product, your business is only going to get worse. I mean seriously what are we going to do when Killer, Thomas, Perry and DMG all pick up a knock at the same time?

I've never disputed that. However I also don't think anyone can honnestly say the players left are better, regardless of their pay. Rasiak, John and Saga are all capable of 20 a season in this league. DMG... I'll wait and see, but wont hold my breath.

The Hungaoring is clockwise circuit though, meaning the right front would have locked up more often. None of Hamilton's front right's punctured however, even the option he did 30 odd laps on at the end of the race. Must have been some kind of tyre fault or foreign object damage.

We were where we were last season because of Burley's neglect for the defence, having 3 different managers and because we let two of our best players out on loan whilst already hovering not far above the drop zone. You also forget that we had all bar 4 of our current squad available last season. 3 different managers decided that they weren't good enough. All of them thought we were better off having Wright at Rb ahead of James, Safri instead of Gillett, Viafara ahead of Lallana, Saganowski, even Pericard, ahead of DMG etc. Saying last season's squad wasn't good enough is a fair enough statement, but we haven't replaced most of them and that leaves us short of quality and too a much greater extent depth and experience. If someone were to ask me now who Saints best player was, assuming Rasiak, Skacel and John leave, I'd really be stumped. Killer's fitness remains to be proven, as with Davies. I guess that leaves the midfielder filling in at LB as winner by default.

You take the p*ss, but it is a valid question IMO. Bar Davies, that was our strongest 11 yesterday. You can't just ignore the fact that there will come a time this season when at least 4 or 5 of them are injured. It is highly likely there will be more than that at some point. Last season we had 6 defenders injured. At the end of the 03/04 season we had 13 first team players out. In about November of the relegation season we had pretty much our entire first 11 in the treatment room. If that happens this season were going to end up with half the under 16s in our squad. If you think loans are a suitable answer, you either didn't watch last season or think that using 18 different defenders over a season had nothing to do with having one of the worst defences in England. Overpaid, over the hill journeymen... I guess you pretty much believe everything you read on the OS.

Don't think anyone is saying that. Nice to hear Killer made a decent comeback though. I'm just praying he can stay fit aong with Davies and Perry.

That statements also works if you remove the words, 'brilliant, with, comedy, like' and 'this'.

Assuming the senior players left our today (Rasiak, Euell and Skacel) leave, how many injuries could this squad take and still be able to put out a side with half a chance of getting a result? Say Perry, Killer, Schneiderlin, Holmes and DMG got injured. What would our starting 11 look like then? Realistically, assuming those players (and possibly John) did leave I any more than 5 injuries at any given time and we'd really be scraping the barrel.