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Pepe Lacey is joined by The News' chief sports writer to pay tribute to former Pompey owner Milan Mandaric, who died aged 87 on Saturday.
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00:00Hello, everybody, and welcome to the latest video by Portsmouth.co.uk.
00:06I'm Pepe Lacey, and today I'm joined by Neil Allen to discuss quite some sad news that
00:12has emerged over the last couple of days of the death of former Pompey owner and popular
00:17chairman Milan Mandrick.
00:20Neil, you knew Milan very well during your time here and during his time in the club.
00:25What was your best memories of Milan?
00:27Yeah, I mean, there's been some lovely things said in the last few days from supporters,
00:35from Harry Redknapp, Peter Starr, everyone that came across Milan, because he's just a person
00:41you remembered.
00:42He's so charismatic.
00:45He could be brutal, don't get me wrong, but he had this wonderful charm about him, this
00:52easygoing nature on the surface sometimes.
00:55So, he had that magic like Harry Redknapp has.
01:01He's just very good with people.
01:03He loves meeting people, talking with people, telling his stories, a great sense of humour.
01:12Sometimes people in life, like those two, I call them geniuses, because not everybody
01:20come mixed in a room full of people and make people think that they're their friend and
01:26they want to listen to them and they care about them.
01:29And that was Milan.
01:30And he's a chairman.
01:31He's an owner.
01:33Owners don't do that.
01:35Owners don't go to the pub with fans and have a drink and don't just go to charity events
01:40and schools, signing kids' shirts at schools and things like that.
01:44That was Milan.
01:45Milan, he loved the adulation.
01:47He embraced it.
01:48He loved being recognised.
01:49He loved being spoken to.
01:51Peter Story was saying that when Milan lived down Port Solent, he'd go and visit the restaurants
01:55around there and go for walks around there.
01:57And he just loved stopping chatting to people.
02:00Owners don't do that, do they?
02:02You don't see it.
02:03Some of the owners after him never even damn existed.
02:06Some of them never even came to this country.
02:09But Milan, I mean, the guy you might barely came to a game.
02:14But Milan Mandrake, and that's the point about Milan, he loved football.
02:18He loved football.
02:18And again, I could go on forever about the dodgy owners afterwards who didn't even like
02:23football and the nefarious reasons about them being at Pompey.
02:27Milan loved football.
02:28He was a football man, embraced it.
02:33And then it was just a special time, a special character.
02:40And I did keep in touch with him years later as well.
02:44And whenever he was coming down to the area and to a Pompey game or whatever, I get a phone
02:50call from his PA saying, oh, Mr. Mandrake's staying at the Marriott Hotel.
02:55Do you want to meet up with him?
02:56I was like, brilliant, yeah, I'll go up and interview him.
02:59And, you know, you hear the old stories over and go, yeah, it was just brilliant.
03:02And I last met him in October, and it's just me and him.
03:06So I had an hour with him in October, and he was telling me all these wonderful stories
03:09about his friendship with Pele and George Best.
03:15And he was genuine friends with the pair.
03:17And we all know about George Best, but I didn't know the Pele stuff.
03:20He was actually invited to Pele's funeral and went to Pele's funeral.
03:24He was proper friends with Pele.
03:27And we all know the George Bestlings.
03:29He was truly a fascinating, fascinating character.
03:35And his dealings with the media, it was really, really interesting.
03:40I'm going to pour some breath on me and have a drink.
03:42You can speak, but I'll come back to that in a minute.
03:44But yeah, we'll get on to how he dealt with the media, which was fascinating as well.
03:48Well, just while you have a drink, I want to touch on my sort of, I wouldn't even say
03:53personal experience of Milan Mandrake, but as a younger fan, when I was growing up, I'd
03:59still have the 2002-2003 DVD downstairs that I sometimes watch.
04:05And as a young fan at the time, five, six years old, they're sort of the first memories
04:10I have of supporting Pompey's, of Milan being that charismatic owner and the golden era under
04:19Harry Redknapp.
04:20And those two just seem to work off each other.
04:23We all know about Harry Redknapp's first departure, where it all sort of kicked off,
04:30but they just seem to work so well with each other.
04:33And I think as a younger fan, having someone like that and then working with someone like
04:38Harry Redknapp, it just brought so many good times for Pompey, especially when he took over
04:43when the club was probably in a dark time.
04:45He obviously took over when Pompey were in administration and there were some financial
04:48issues going on behind the scenes.
04:50But I mean, just what he did for the club during that, from 1999 to 2006, it was unbelievable
04:57the transition he took Pompey from a Division I side to the Premier League.
05:03I remember one time, very early on when I joined the news, I was dispatched to a company
05:08in Milan.
05:09Johnny Moore was there as well, another director, and they were going on to the Isle of Wight
05:13in a hovercraft.
05:15And, you know, I just joined the paper.
05:17I was like, this is the owner of the football club here.
05:20And he was brilliant.
05:21So nice to me.
05:23But also, I just marvelled about how, and again, I keep stressing this, how good he was
05:30with people.
05:32It's a gift.
05:33It really is.
05:34He connected with people.
05:37He loved listening to them.
05:38He chapped to them.
05:39He mixed to them.
05:41That was what he loved doing.
05:45And of course, the adulation, there's only one Milan and all that.
05:49And he also embraced the media side of it all.
05:51And we all had his phone number.
05:53Nationals as well.
05:54Everybody had his phone number.
05:55And he'd always answer the phone to you.
05:58He really would.
05:59And he'd give you a line and give you a comment.
06:01And it was also, as somebody in the media as well, it was a joy because he'd just give
06:10you stories.
06:11Sitting on a digger.
06:16For improvements to frat and part that never happened or whatever it was.
06:20Refusing to pay the players after a bad run under Graham Ricks.
06:24The Yossi saga telling Graham Ricks he had to play Yossi at Sheffield Wednesday.
06:31Otherwise, Graham Ricks would get the sack.
06:34You see that on Dream Team.
06:35Not real life, didn't you?
06:37Footballers' wives and Ted Lasso and things like that.
06:41It's just absolutely crazy, wasn't it?
06:44Sending the Duck to Rupert Lowe.
06:46Yeah.
06:48I was chatting to him about this the other day.
06:51The whole story behind the Duck saga is that when trying to reach agreement with Southampton
06:58financially and their owner, chairman Rupert Lowe, who's obviously reinvented himself these
07:03days, but Rupert Lowe, he, Milan got very frustrated that Rupert Lowe was never available and was
07:11always on duck hunts.
07:13So, Milan got, I think you got Peter Warwick, Peter Story's wife bought a duck and they packaged
07:23it up, wrapped it in Christmas paper, wrapping paper, and sent it in an Aquacab's car to St.
07:31Mary's for Rupert Lowe.
07:33It's unheard of nowadays.
07:36It's so bizarre.
07:37And then Rupert Lowe was so outraged, he complained to the Premier League about it, who just laughed
07:42it off and ignored it.
07:43And I remember Milan recapped this with me about three years ago and I put that article about
07:48it and I retweeted it on Twitter the other day.
07:51It's just so funny because the way Milan tells it, it's so deadpan and makes that, and makes
07:58that he genuinely bought it because he's a nice person and it was nothing, it's just amazing.
08:03But these are the sort of things that went on.
08:06It was just Milan and when he left in September 2006, after signing up completely to Sasha
08:16Gynamack, Harry invited all the local press, written, broadcast, radio, all the local press
08:26to the Pizza House restaurant, Giuseppe's in Hilsley, across the road from the news centre.
08:33And he entertained us, bought dinner for us and then each gave us each a bottle of wine
08:40afterwards.
08:40It was just a lovely gesture from him.
08:45And yeah, it was a lovely night really because he was sad to leave and he kept saying to him,
08:53this Gynamack, is he okay?
08:55And he kept trying to avoid the question.
08:59Because Gynamack never did any press either.
09:01I mean, the only time he did it was when he arrived and stopped banging on about Arthur
09:04Conan's all play for Pompey, which is not even correct.
09:06You know, if you're going to say one thing in your life, at least get it correct.
09:10And we never spoke after that.
09:12But Gynamack, sorry, but Milan was completely different.
09:17And yeah, it was just, it was a sad night really because you know that those times were
09:23over.
09:24And I know that we probably had even better times on the pitch after that.
09:26FA Cup, Europe, AC Milan, things like that.
09:29And another cup final, I missed the mess.
09:32But, so they had some good times after that as well, don't get me wrong.
09:35But it was just that night, it was just an end of an era.
09:38He was like, we're not going to have this again, are we?
09:41So it was a special, special man, Milan.
09:44Anyone that met him would speak highly of him because it was just brilliant, brilliant company.
09:50And it's a shame because I was meant to meet him in June.
09:54And I just couldn't, in London when he was down, and I'd arranged on the phone with him
09:58a couple of times and just couldn't arrange it in the end.
10:01Couldn't pin him down in the end where he was in the day.
10:04And so I missed my chance to have one final chat with him because obviously he died a few
10:09months later.
10:10So yeah, a marvellous, marvellous character.
10:13And I've not even spoken about how much he loved Pompey.
10:17I know, I mean, what's rare is that an owner's revered at three different football clubs
10:21in England that he owned, which is rare.
10:24But Pompey was always his favourite.
10:26And he'd admit it as well.
10:28He wouldn't even be polite.
10:29He wouldn't even say, oh, I love for more.
10:30No, no, no.
10:31Pompey is, was his favourite.
10:34He made no secret of that whatsoever.
10:37And yeah, he's just a remarkable, remarkable man.
10:42But again, absolutely ruthless as they come.
10:45But he was a successful businessman.
10:47So that's what they are.
10:49Well, I wanted to touch on, you just, you just touched on it.
10:51Yeah, it was just the love he has by, by everyone.
10:55We've taken a couple of days to reflect on the tributes and we've seen everything on
11:00social media.
11:00He's adored by Pompey fans.
11:02I think that was, I did a story on, on Sunday.
11:05He's absolutely adored by Pompey fans and individual Pompey fans have their own individual
11:09stories about how they first met Milan or when they met Milan.
11:13And then you'd go and have a look at what Leicester fans have been saying.
11:16And they said the exact same thing.
11:18Sheffield Wednesday fans said the exact same thing.
11:20And then you did the interview with Harry Redknapp.
11:23Harry Redknapp said the exact same thing.
11:26He's just such a loved character.
11:29And it's just so rare to, rare to see that in modern football.
11:33Yeah, the other thing was, it was, it was a special time that him and the Redknapp relationship.
11:40It was love-hate.
11:41They admit it themselves.
11:43It was, they just fly off each other.
11:45One time, Redknapp got a warning letter from Milan after swearing at him too much before
11:55a game and things like that.
11:56And on a special note paper from Pompey saying, throw out your language when speaking to the
12:02owner, please.
12:03And it was just them.
12:04It was just them.
12:05They'd have the arguments.
12:06And the thing is, if you know Redknapp as well, at Milan, they could fly off the handle.
12:12They're impetuous, tempestuous characters.
12:18And they could fly off the handle at any time over something.
12:22But they calmed down and they'd never bore a grudge.
12:25It'd be all forgotten about.
12:26So when they had their big bust-ups, Fred Diney's told me many of these stories as well, because
12:31he was there at the time.
12:32They had their big bust-ups and next day it was all forgotten about and they're all friends.
12:37And that's how it worked.
12:38You fell out with Milan, next day it was fine.
12:39You fall out with Harry, next day it's fine.
12:43Our sports editor, Mojo in the Mandarin years, was Colin Chanham.
12:48And we'd get bans and things with various little misdemeanours, nonsense, whatever.
12:53And Colin would go and meet Milan, down at the Pizza House restaurant for a glass of wine
13:01or have a coffee.
13:02And he'd sort it out straight away and he'd come back all squiffy and all giggly, because
13:06he'd just met Milan and had a bit of wine and things.
13:09But it was all sorted very, very quickly.
13:11But it was just Milan.
13:13He'd just fly off the handle, then calm down.
13:15And he could talk to him as well, Milan, as well, and listen to Reason.
13:19And I'll say until, and then when he left, until the, this is the stat is, when Milan left
13:27and the trust came in in April 2013, me as the chief sports writer of the Portsmouth News
13:35never spoke to a single owner or chairman of Portsmouth Football Club.
13:39So you go from one extreme with Milan to the other until the trust come in.
13:43And so, yeah, so again, it's just, there were just remarkable times and we all smile thinking
13:50about it.
13:51And the football team in that first Harry Redknapp era as well.
13:54And the great escape, of course, from Milan was still there.
13:57They were just great times.
13:59It's just the glory years, the golden years, weren't they really?
14:02Some good times.
14:04And yeah.
14:05And speak to any Pompey fan as well.
14:07They would tell you the best football they've ever seen Pompey play was in the Redknapp in Milan.
14:13Especially that title.
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