Soccer: Portsmouth cannot be accused of failing to provide entertainment, and that is before they step on to the pitch. Yesterday saw the latest episode in the soap opera involving Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric and few will take for granted that it will be, as advertised, the last in the series.

Rarely can a manager and chairman have sat side by side six days after going their separate ways, but Redknapp and Mandaric took that bizarre step at Fratton Park.

By the time an amicable press conference ended, Redknapp had what he came for as his former chairman cleared him of any wrongdoing in transfers, but the proceedings were not without a touch of farce.

Not only did Mandaric jokily put his arms around Redknapp's neck at one point, he also said he had returned from Dubai on Monday night unaware that a press conference had been called at his club for the following lunchtime. He said that when a journalist rang to ask him about it, he wondered whether Redknapp was returning less than a week after he walked out.

"I honest to God started to get excited," Mandaric said. "I thought after all this back and forth and all this speculation, that Harry came to say I'm going back to join Milan again.

"That's what I thought this press conference was all about. But I was wrong. Unfortunately, we have to clear what needed to be cleared."

That meant Mandaric publicly stating that Redknapp had never done anything untoward in his dealings at Portsmouth. Redknapp wanted that after a newspaper headline last Saturday - £3m. That's what Harry's special agents have cost me over two years, says Mandaric - deeply upset him.

"I'd never been so shocked and disgusted in my life," he said.

Mandaric was happy to clarify matters, providing some interesting statistics in the process. Over the past two and half years, he said, Portsmouth had paid £11.5 million to clubs for 25 players and brought in a further 16 free transfers and three short-term loans.

"During this period the club have paid £3.4 million to various agents covering 38 players," he said. "We have used 31 different agents. We have a further contracted potential liability of £3.5 million to clubs on player/match appearances and Portsmouth retaining their Premier League status."

He added in a statement that praised Redknapp's "phenomenal" work on a net transfer expenditure of £10 million: "Harry was never involved at any time on any transfer and contract negotiations throughout his period at the club.

"And at no time did I ever imply that there was any wrongdoing by Harry Redknapp in these transactions. I was simply saying that agents take so much out of the game. I want, along with all my fellow Premier League chairmen, to reduce their influence in all club finances."

Redknapp seemed satisfied. "Innuendos and all that are no good," he said. "I don't deserve that. I needed to clear the air. That's what Milan has done."

Having ruled out a return to Portsmouth, he was asked about his future. "I haven't spoken to any other football clubs," he said before correcting himself.

"I have had one, but I think if I rung any chairman in the first division and said 'look for £10 million I can get you out of the first division and keep you in the Premier for two years', I think I would have a few offers. But I haven't gone down that road at all."

As Redknapp drove off he gave a thumbs up to a clutch of applauding fans.

Mandaric would be delighted if the saga is over. "It's time," he said, "to draw a line over the soap opera that surrounds the relationship between Harry Redknapp and myself."

Guardian Service