RIP Milan Mandaric: The Portsmouth owner who became the island city's hero
His death yesterday at the age of 87 was received with profound sadness by the Pompey family, with Milan Mandaric giving supporters some of the best moments of their lives. Jordan Cross pays tribute to one of the the greatest figures in this club’s 127-year history.
The number is ingrained deep in the memory.
Years of incessantly dialling Milan Mandaric’s mobile phone from The News’ sports desk, means that will always be the way.
The demands from editors would often begin straight after morning conference, with the insistence calls be made to the Pompey chairman at ungodly hours to get the latest lines into first editions.
Being badgered by reporters at all hours of the day and night, would be enough to draw the ire of many, with some justification.
But not Milan.
Milan Mandaric and his Pompey ‘love affair’
This was a hugely successful figure facing huge demands as he tended to his many business interests across the globe. Yet the man from Novi Sad in Serbia always remained generous with his time, particularly when it came to discussing issues pertaining to his Pompey ‘love affair’.
And wasn't he great at doing it, too. Speaking with passion and theatre on his favourite subject, leaving us all within his thrall.
It wasn’t always easy though, especially for a trainee sports writer on the Blues beat. Mandaric’s emotional character would often lead to angry outbursts, as I found out not too far into my journalistic education.
It was a story quoting Fratton hero Paul Walsh which he took exception to for what he saw as an overly critical angle, he also didn’t appreciate the hall of famer being termed a ‘Pompey legend’ as they butted heads.
Still, it came as a surprise to see a statement issued on the club’s official website, from the club's owner criticising my work. Considering I’d been in the Fratton End singing his name a year or so earlier, it was quite the culture shock.
But things calmed down and any friction soon eased as these things tended to do with Milan, usually by breaking bread at the Pizza House Restaurant across the road from The News’ base in Hilsea. That’s how one of our many bans would be resolved, in a period where cutting off our access would happen about as regularly as a managerial change in his famously trigger-happy Fratton tenure.
Mandaric got through four bosses in less than three years after buying the club out of administration for £4.5m in 1999, before he arrived at the appointment which would define his Pompey stewardship. March 2002 brought manager number five in Harry Redknapp, and a calculated gamble which was to reap dividends for the man whose wealth accumulated in Silicon Valley.
Redknapp’s appointment coincided with the collapse of ITV Digital, and with it the £315m deal with the Football League which left gaping holes in its members’ balance sheets. Yet while clubs were plunged into administration, Mandaric speculated in affording Redknapp the backing to bring in the likes of Tim Sherwood, Steve Stone, Matt Taylor, Yakubu, Paul Merson & Co. We all know what happened next.
The rise was dramatic and memorable and, at its heart, was a relationship which was volatile and combustible but also irresistible and enchanting.
Quite frankly, Harry and Milan were as box office as it gets.
Of course the relationship was to break down seemingly beyond repair with Redknapp’s departure in November 2004, only for the chairman to wonderfully channel his penchant for drama with his return at the end of the following year.
Mandaric seeking counsel from this journalist over that decision was a surreal moment, as he debated the wisdom of Redknapp’s employment after crossing the divide. The advice to make it happen was clear and unequivocal back then, and it proved to be arguably the most inspired moment of his seven-year stay at the Pompey helm.
The Blues were, to use one of Mandaric’s many, many popular phrases, on the ‘slippery slope’, yet this was a man conditioned to making big calls, as he successfully built his business empire in communist Yugoslavia in his 20s and 30s.
A Pompey giant who gave us some of the best moments of our lives
‘Better to live like a lion for a day than a lamb for a lifetime,’ was another of his popular sayings, but Mandaric lived his words through his actions. The result was he provided many, many Pompey fans with some of the best moments of their lives – at a home which, by his own admission, provided the highlight of his incredible existence.
He certainly gave this Pompey reporter quite possibly the happiest moments of his 25-year employment, as he piggybacked on the incredible journey he created.
So it was with profound and deep sadness that his death at the age of 87 was digested last night, with that wonderful kaleidoscope of Mandaric memories spinning through the mind’s eye. It, of course, is a sentiment and process echoed across the Pompey family.
Former Blues chief sports writer, Mark Storey, once wrote a feature which aired the notion of building a statue in recognition of Mandaric’s incredible Fratton achievements. ‘Best goddam article I’ve ever read,’ came the wry response of a football club owner who became the island city’s hero.
Maybe the day has now come to consider immortalising a man who will, without question, be remembered as one of the greatest figures in this club’s storied 127-year history.
After all, there truly was only one Milan.