Alexandre Gaydamak, who has all but completed the sale of Portsmouth to a Dubai investor, has admitted that his three-year flirtation with the Premier League will leave him with a financial hole in his pocket.

Warning that buyers will need strong nerves at top-flight football clubs, the Franco-Russian businessman described his tenure at Fratton Park as “enriching”, though in a life-affirming rather than a financial sense. “I turned out much worse off,” Mr Gaydamak said of his net position following the sale of Portsmouth to Sulaiman Al-Fahim. “It turned out not to be a good commercial transaction.”