hutch

So it's not a thread about our new cheerleaders then.

Completely off the subject, but one thing we could learn from rugby is the 10 minute sin bin.

It was originally with MEA from new for about 6 years (when the tail strike happened) up till early naughties. Then it went into a stage of alternating between Turkey and Saudi Arabia until 2012 when it went to Metrojet. I think it's been owned by ILFC the whole time. Noteworthy that it carried a French registration while it was at MEA, so there might be a BEA accident report about the tailstrike incident somewhere. That might throw some light on what actually happened. Interesting statements by our government. That should get a reaction from the Egyptians and Russians.

Wasn't this a student union appointment, not university?

There are tailstrikes and tailstrikes. This was a landing incident. The plane landed on it's tail instead of it's wheels. Too early to say? My post clearly says it's what I think. I accept it will be several years before the final report comes out. But the tail fell off this aeroplane at cruising altitude, and 4 days after the crash there is no evidence of terrorism.

I think the fact that this plane was operated by a Russian airline is irrelevant. I don't think this incident is maintenance-related. The plane's owners would have independent engineers monitoring all the maintenance to make sure it was done properly and on-time.

No it's not that bad. You're still allowed to show your preference in public for the sort of people you want to mix with:

Is this a game changer? Is it time to bring to an end the practice of repairing structurally damaged aeroplanes and putting them back into service?

They'll try too hard and we'll nick a couple of quick early goals, then sit back and play out the last 60 mins.

I think it's a bit like modern GCSE's, you get marks just for turning up. So yes, AFAIK our coefficient will be higher for having taken part last year, and for winning. I think the marks last for 5 years from memory.

Thank you, Ma'am.

More interesting is that 7th place will be worth an extra £48m under the new TV deal. That's absolutely staggering.

We assume Suarez passed with flying colours.

Jim'll Fix It

And, although I don't understand all the complicated numbers stuff, we would have a better coefficient this time, and maybe avoid teams that drop out of the CL in the early rounds.

To Gosport. I doubt that's goint to relieve their financial worries.

Safety car wasn't required when double yellows were in operation.

Ideal for who?

Weren't we down in League 1 when we were 5hit, beating Bournemouth every time we played them?

Koeman said in his interview last week that our squad is stronger this season. That's good enough for me.

Blown our chances of sneaking into next season's Europa via the back door then.

As if anything like that would ever happen at Portsmouth. They are far too astute to follow a knee-jerk policy like that. Spot on. This is the first time for many years that they have actually had to live with finite financial resources, and they don't know how. It's pretty plain they're over their budget (my guess is around £20k month) and the bills are mounting now that the season ticket money has gone. I think they now have to submit a "tax clearance certificate" to the FL every month, so they haven't got the option of the Bank of HMRC as working capital this time round. Their monthly tax bill (PAYE, NI & VAT) must be around £75k month. In previous years they've had unpaid creditors (twice), barrowloads of parachute payments that should have gone to creditors and Tesco money to bail them out. Now they've only got the pockets of their HNW shareholders who must be looking over their shoulders at the chasing pack. I imagine there are a few tasty conversations between McInness and Cook at the moment.

You can say that again

I couldn't have put it any better myself.

I really hope Bournemouth stay up, so we get to beat them next season as well.