THEY loved Preki's crowd-pleasing playmaking skills when he was at Pompey - but nobody would have guessed that the little midfielder was responsible for creating the biggest chance the troubled south coast club has had in years.

Preki was the link that helped bring Milan Mandaric in as the new owner of Portsmouth FC. And the Yugoslav-born American multi-millionaire - already dubbed Milan Manda Rich - has promised to pull the club up by its bootlaces and launch it into a new era.

Mandaric was officially installed as the new owner yesterday following his £4.5million purchase of the club.

Among the directors will be former Arsenal defender Bob McNab while television presenter Fred Dinenage has also been persuaded to rejoin the board. The managing director will be David Deacon, son of the former owner John Deacon.

Deacon was the matchmaker responsible for the marriage of Pompey and Mandaric, with Preki as the go-between.

"I first met him through Preki," said Deacon, who revealed that Mandaric was interested in buying Pompey five years ago.

"Milan came to see him play when he was here. The timing wasn't right then but we always kept in touch.

"When the club went into administration three months ago I told him about the situation and that it could be the time to buy it."

Managing director Deacon will be responsible for the day-to-day run-ning of the club.

One of Mandaric's first jobs was to confirm Alan Ball as manager with the promise of team-building funds.

But the man who made his fortune in the electronics industry said: "I'm not going to put a figure exactly on how much there will be to spend.

"I might have a lot of money, but I don't throw it away needlessly."

A former player himself with Yugoslavian side Novi Sad, Mandaric is also ready to take up an option to buy Belgian club Charleroi, a move he has obtained UEFA clearance for.

"I have been involved in football all my life and owned clubs in different parts of the world. "But I have always been keen on English football.

"You have to have relationships with other clubs. "Manchester United bought a share in Antwerp and Liverpool are looking at getting involved with other clubs.

"I'm looking to where we can bring young international players to Charleroi. England is limited in that respect and we can look at players in Belgium first.

"Football is now a serious business and it can't be a hobby. That's just the 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon, but around that, everything else is serious business."

As well as building a team capable of challenging, Mandaric is also keen to find Pompey a new home. "My objective is to provide this club with 21st Century facilities, which is what you need these days."

According to Deacon, that could mean an attempt to revive the ill-fated Parkway Stadium plan in which he was involved, although he also claims to have identified two sites within Portsmouth and three on the Portsmouth-Fareham boundary, which were to be the subject of talks with local authority officials yesterday afternoon.

Pompey Youth were beaten in a penalty shoot-out in last night's Southern Counties Floodlit Cup final against Wolves at Molineux. With the aggregate scores tied at 3-3 at the end of extra-time, Wolves nicked the shoot-out 8-7. West Ham visit tonight for Gordon Neave's testimonial.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.