ON THE day he appointed Tony Pulis to manage Portsmouth FC, Milan Mandaric described him as "a man who never had a free lunch in his life."
Yesterday, Pulis a waiter turned up with a large bill.
The man who displayed all the blue-collar characteristics that Pompey's American owner wanted failed to match Mandaric's production targets.
A marriage made not so much in heaven as manufactured on the shop floor of an assembly plant was dissolved after just nine months.
Four hours of talks on Tuesday hinted that the pair might have patched up their differences, but Mandaric still wanted answers, answers he wasn't able to get in more tough talks yesterday.
In nine months a relationship that had began so brightly had mysteriously gone sour. Where? Privately, Mandaric would say it was not the same Tony Pulis he apppointed in January, but the suspicion is that it was exactly the same Tony Pulis. What had changed were the goalposts.
See tonight's Daily Echo for more on the news from Portsmouth
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