But in reality the Serb-American millionaire has settled on Redknapp as his first choice and, once Southampton accept adequate compensation, Mandaric will offer him a contract for the rest of the season.

This is just what he has at St Mary’s but the important difference will be the huge bonus Redknapp will pick up if he keeps Portsmouth in the top flight. Provided that happens, he will have an option of at least two more years tacked onto his deal.

Redknapp left Portsmouth a year and a week ago after Mandaric appointed Croat Velimir Zajec as executive director – a director of football in all but name.

That was the title Redknapp was given when he joined Pompey from West Ham in 2001 but within a year he took over from Graham Rix as manager and steered the team to promotion from the old First Division.

Saints chairman Rupert Lowe will either hold out for compensation – thought to be around £250,000 (€369,427)– or see Redknapp resign.

Rumours are rife he is ready to appoint former World Cup-winning England rugby union coach Clive Woodward, the club’s controversially-recruited technical director. However it is more likely to be Redknapp’s assistant Dave Bassett or midfielder Dennis Wise, the former Millwall manager, who becomes caretaker coach.

Meanwhile Mandaric, who has also been turned down by Crystal Palace’s Iain Dowie, flies to the funeral of his close friend George Best in Belfast and will return to Manchester with Alex Ferguson for Portsmouth’s latest Premiership torture at Old Trafford tomorrow night.

The Premiership strugglers have lost their last three games and are away to Tottenham in the next but the players are undaunted by the task even though midfielder Gary O’Neil, 22, admits: “You don’t often expect to get much from the Manchester Uniteds and the Tottenhams, but if we all do our best then surely we have a chance.

“The next six or eight games after Spurs will tell us where we are going, though. If we don’t beat West Brom, Fulham, teams like that, we will really be in a relegation scrap.

“Everybody knows I didn’t play many games when Harry was here before but I think I could hold my place in the team under him now. I still haven’t got a lot of Premiership experience but I’ve played 15 games this season and been pretty consistent I think.

“I didn’t make that much progress when Harry was here but he was a fantastic man-manager and let me go out on loan to Cardiff. I never said a word against him and if he came back I would expect us to climb the table.”

O’Neil’s midfield partner, Richard Hughes, said: “It is one of the most difficult games there is tomorrow but last season we ran United close there. Gary scored a long-range equaliser and it was only a few minutes from the end when Wayne Rooney got the winner.

“If we can keep it tight at the back and keep a clean sheet somebody with technical ability like Laurent Robert can take a chance and get a goal out of nothing.

“We did much better against Chelsea last week after Joe Jordan, our coach, stood in [as caretaker manager]. We restricted them to minimum chances and we’ve got to do that to United.

“Obviously we’d like to be much higher in the table but I don’t think there was much wrong with the last manager’s tactics – especially away from home. We just could not seem to take our chances in front of goal and after a couple of years with Aiyegbeni Yakubu in the side getting 19 a season that is something we’ve got to address.”