We have a lot to thank Milan Mandaric for. He took over the club in 1998 when it was dying and the threat of administration was very much real. It's quite feasible to say that without Milan this club could well have tumbled down the divisions or even worse, been killed off. Before promotion there were a fair few ups and downs during his tenure at the club. Who can remember when he decided to cancel the players' wages because he believed they were underperforming? On the other hand, we got to see high profile signings like Robert Prosinecki and Paul Merson grace the Fratton Park turf during our time in the first division.
When Mandaric first took over the club he promised the fans two things. One was Premiership football and the other was a new stadium. We are yet to see the latter but let's be clear that Milan hasn't left the club, only handed over full control to Sacha so we might still see a new stadium whilst Mandaric remains at the club, however his decision to sell is only going to fuel speculation about the progress of the plans for the new Fratton Park. Mandaric did give us all our dream though, and that was Premiership football. Something that never looked likely under the Ball or Rix regimes and it's safe to stay that despite Harry Redknapp's ingenuity when it came to building a championship winning side, it wouldn't have been possible without Milan Mandaric.
During his time at Pompey Milan was converted into a Pompey fan, after all it's hard to see a chairman of any other club be so happy when your arch rivals have been relegated. But sometimes Milan let his emotions get the better of him as he was never shy to talk to the press at any given time. Occasionally his emotion has caused him to make some silly statements like quoting Perrin's team as the "best Pompey side he had ever seen." and his quarrels with "Saint Harry" and his master Rupert Lowe made this club look like a circus over a year ago. Mandaric also made a couple of forgettable appointments in Velimir Zajec and Alain Perrin too, which threatened to undo all the good work he had done for the club. One thing is for sure though, Milan likes a gamble and it's safe to say that the first appointment of Harry Redknapp, and then the highly controversial re-appointment of Redknapp have both paid off massively after his ideas for long term stability had blown up in his face.
At the end of it, Milan Mandaric will go down as a Pompey legend for all he has done at this club. Yes he's made mistakes but for this football club to be transformed from Division One strugglers into a Premiership outfit takes some doing and Milan takes a lot of plaudits for that. He'll still be around too, so it's not like we're waving goodbye to him yet and even if his new title of "non-executive Chairmman" is confusing, his title of "Pompey fan" is well and truly set in stone.
We now have to look to the future under the sole leadership of Sacha Gaydamak who has already seemed to have caught the Pompey bug during his short time at the club. The future looks promising indeed as Milan has left us in a far stronger position than when he first arrived at the club. Fratton Faithful thanks you Milan, for everything you have done for this football club.
There's only one Milan!