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Our Nige for England?
Following his coolness in handling the fiasco that was the Qatar round of the Grand Prix Masters, Nigel Mansell is, somewhat surprisingly, set to be offered the post of England’s next football manager.
The unlikely scenario came about after an official at the Football Association watched Nigel’s win at the Losail International Circuit, and decided that if ‘our Nige’ could handle that shambles, then looking after the England squad should be a piece of cake.
It is not known if Nigel actually knows anything about football, but that is not believed to be an issue with the FA.
The race, won in style by Mansell, with Formula 1 ‘legends’ Christian Danner and Eric van de Poele joining him on the podium, was severely blighted by over-use of the safety car as race organisers had not apparently given much thought to retrieving cars stuck out on the circuit, something rather vital when you have Andrea de Cesaris competing.
Andrea managed to beach his car at turn one, just after the marshals had spent an eternity moving Eliseo Salazar’s car, and seemingly the only way to move it was with one of the biggest forklift trucks known to man.
This took forever, prompting a commentating Murray Walker to utter the memorable line “Off you go Abdul”. Classic.
As if all the shenanigans on track were not enough, there was an embarrassing silence on the podium when somebody forgot to play the anthems, Nigel’s suggestion that one of the podium girls sing sadly not being taken up.
We called the FA to ask them if there was any truth in the Mansell rumour, only to be told “Don’t be so ridiculous” before the ’phone was put down on us.
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I wish we could get Murray's commentary here in the states...
Our Speed TV coverage has David Hobbs which is almost as good...
