'My family think I'm crazy. It upsets me a little': Iain McInnes on his football heartbreak - torn between Gosport duty and his beloved Portsmouth

Yet the 72-year-old is adamant he will one day join them at his beloved Fratton Park.

McInnes bought the Southern League Premier Division South club in December 2017, just seven months after quitting as Pompey chairman ahead of Tornante’s takeover.

Now approaching five years at Borough, his wife Jane has still to visit Privett Park, while daughter Georgina and son Jamie’s total attendances can be counted on one hand.

Instead three generations of the McInnes family can be found at Pompey home games on Saturday afternoons, with Jamie’s seven-year-old son Jacob the newest inductee.

And while the patriarch remains absent from such Fratton Park trips, he promises it won’t be forever.

McInnes told The News: ‘It’s difficult when people very close to me are saying “We want you with us at Fratton Park”.

‘Three generations of my family are at every Pompey home match and they would quite like granddad to also be there. Why wouldn’t they, he was the one that got them involved in it. I get it, I really do.

‘There’s no malice in it, but it’s basically “Dad, considering what we went through, what happened, couldn't you be satisfied with walking away (as Pompey chairman) and just enjoy coming back to Fratton Park?”.

‘I have transferred temporary allegiance to Gosport. I just fell into it, so much so that I never talked to Jane about it. She found out from watching BBC, she hadn’t a clue.

‘Afterwards Jane called me up and said “I hope you’ve got the receipt!”.’

‘My family think I’m crazy. My wife has never been here, my daughter a couple of times, my son a couple of times, they don’t want to.

‘It upsets me a little that they aren’t fully behind it because it’s the first time in my life that has been the case. They don’t wish me ill at all, but they just don’t understand it, don’t get it, don’t come.

‘Some of my mates ask how can you have more than one club – and there’s a lot of truth in that – but if you have kids and then grandchildren, it’s kind of like that.’

It was the late Ray Stainton who introduced McInnes to Gosport.

After four years serving as Pompey’s chairman during fan ownership, leaving on the high of claiming the League Two title, the lad from Paulsgrove was tempted by a fresh challenge.

He added: ‘I enjoy it at Gosport, you get to know the players, you are much closer with the managers, things are much more immediate, when the players are walking out the ground they are walking among the fans.

‘The model was to come here, build the club from the ground up and make it sustainable to enable me to walk away.

‘Then they can wheel me into the Fratton End and I’ll see out my days there.’