'I still regret it': Milan Mandaric reveals why he never should have sold Portsmouth to become Leicester City owner

Milan Mandaric doesn’t need reminding he should never have sold Pompey – the painful misgivings live with him every single day.

The Serb was reduced to part-owner of the Blues in January 2006 after selling a stake to Sacha Gaydamak.

The following summer, in the aftermath of the Great Escape, he relinquished all involvement to end an eventful seven years as Pompey chairman.

Saturday represented an emotional return to Fratton Park for Mandaric, who was last in attendance in September 2010 while owner of Leicester City.

And the 84-year-old is adamant he should never have walked away when he did.

‘Pompey was the best era of my life, the club and its supporters are unbelievable,’ Mandaric told The News.

‘Wherever I go, people ask me “What’s your favourite club?”. I say “No doubt, easy, it’s Pompey”.

‘I enjoyed it there because people appreciated what was happening, they truly love their club. I told them this is your club, let’s work together and get to the Premier League. One day I will leave and you will stay here, you are the owner of the club, not me.

‘I wish I had stayed, to be honest with you, I regret selling Pompey. If I look back in football, I wish I stayed there. I should have stayed longer.

‘I went to Leicester and did a good job, it’s a good club and I had a good relationship with Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, I had a good time.

‘But it wasn’t Pompey. I missed the supporters, the feelings, the city, walking along the street and speaking to the fans.

‘I will never forget my third match at Pompey (in 1999). The Lord Mayor, a nice guy, put his arm on my shoulder and said “Mr Chairman, when we win a Saturday game, for the next week everyone on the street will be happy and smiling”.

‘After a few games I knew he was right. You’d go outside and everyone would be “Hey chairman, how are you today? Good win, good job”.

‘I will never forget my days at Pompey, such a special time.’

A computer component tycoon who made his fortune in California's Silicon Valley, Mandaric became Pompey owner in May 1999.

His £4.5m offer to administrators HLB Kidsons ended four-and-a-half months in administration, while preserved the future of a club financially crippled.

The former Nice and Standard Liege owner, however, admits initially he eyed Manchester City as his first club in England, with the Citizens flying high in the Second Division at the time.

Mandaric added: ‘My friend George Best brought me to England and, at first, I looked at Manchester City.

‘We stayed there for 30 days, but you didn’t know who you were talking to. There were so many people running the club – and nobody was running it in the same direction.

‘It was complicated, there was a lot of confusion in the club, and you can’t have that. You want everyone to go in the same direction, if you do then we have no problem, you will be successful. That's what happened at Pompey.

‘George always called me “President” and he said “President, there is a small club down south, a great club, they are in trouble, almost out of business. Maybe you will like that?

‘To me, it probably made more sense to go to a smaller club, so we went down to Pompey and took it out of administration.

‘George was with me every game at Pompey, then sadly he left us, it was a sad time for me and a lot of people. There are so many stories about George Best.

‘It took me a while with managers, though. They are there to get results and win the games and I had some guys that weren’t able to do that – until I got Harry.’

In January 2006, Gaydamak was unveiled as Mandaric’s co-owner after investing in Pompey.

A French businessman whose father Arkadi owned Beitar Jerusalem, his arrival provided Redknapp with timely financial muscle in the transfer market as the Blues pulled off the Great Escape.

Mandaric relinquished his remaining shares that summer, in a deal totalling around £15m, staying on as a non-executive director before walking away in September 2006.

Within six months he became Leicester City’s owner, before later taking over at Sheffield Wednesday – and then leaving English football for good in January 2015.

He said: ‘I thought I had done my job at Pompey and it was time to move on.

‘Leicester became available, another club that was down and needed promotion. I fell in love with the stadium in June 2003 when Serbia played England in a friendly there, with me attending.

‘I just thought maybe it was time for a change and for Pompey to get somebody else. I had been there for seven years, it was a long time, and a lot of things happened, so it wasn’t a boring time.

‘Sacha Gaydamak wasn’t a bad guy, he had problems when his father got in trouble and couldn’t get any more money from him, so didn’t pay the bills.

‘He then sold it to somebody else, who wasn’t a very good guy (Sulaiman Al Fahim) – but I can’t say anything bad about Sacha.’