No I never thought that Salim Al Salmi was ever considered as a replacement......
I agree with you and in this part of the world you do not have to look further than 150 kms up the road to see disaster in the making.
EK as a group should thank their stars for TC, GC and the OBE'ed MF, although I am not so sure about the Gibbons effect in all of this, it has a tendency to distort the image.......