Milan Mandaric gives verdict on Portsmouth's current position and explains why he regrets selling club

Milan Mandaric has called for Pompey unity in the club’s bid to return to the game’s higher echelons.
Former Pompey chairman Milan MandaricFormer Pompey chairman Milan Mandaric
Former Pompey chairman Milan Mandaric

And the former Blues owner has expressed his regret over selling to Alexandre Gaydamak in 2006.

Mandaric aired his view the club now have an honourable man at the helm in Michael Eisner.

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Mandaric said: ‘We’re not doing too well at the moment on the pitch.

‘It’s such a shame and breaks my heart when I talk to people.

‘I’ve been following results and hoping things improve because they need to get back to the Championship at least, and then see what they can do.

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‘I’m quite sure the owner now is a good guy and that is what he’s going to try to do.

‘You have to have the right people to make it happen.

‘You just have to the right people with a winning attitude and the same attitude as the people there.

‘There has to be the desire there - it has to be all together. It goes from the top down to be one strong club.

‘It can happen still, of course. It happened before.

‘They were close last year. In those times that’s when you need a little bit of luck when it comes to that part, but I guess we created our own luck.’

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Mandaric’s time at the Pompey helm came when he sold a 50 per cent share of the club to Gaydamak in January 2006, before selling the rest of the club that summer.

Success followed before the Blues became the first Premier League club to go into administration under Balram Chainrai in 2010

The manner in which the mess unravelled and owners and their families were linked has been documented and leads to some regret from Mandaric, who knows how long the road back has been for Pompey.

He said: ‘It’s a big regret of mine that I didn’t spend more time to make sure the club went into the right hands.

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‘It was okay with Alexandre for the first year or so but what happened later was corrupt. It’s such a shame.

‘It’s so hard to see. It’s an emotional thing.

‘I’m not saying there hasn’t been the right people before but it hasn’t happened here over years now.

‘I can’t believe they haven’t been able to get back to where they belong.

‘I’m not trying to be disrespectful to League One or League Two but Portsmouth shouldn’t be there.

‘They definitely don’t deserve to be there. The supporters belong at the top of football.’