Town boss Kieran McKenna says Conor Chaplin deserved the opportunity to explore a loan move to Portsmouth during the closing hours of the transfer window.

Boyhood Pompey fan and academy graduate Chaplin completed a temporary move to Fratton Park late on transfer deadline day in a deal that sees the Blues hold a recall option in January.

The forward, who has scored 55 goals in 174 matches for Town since signing from Barnsley four years ago, is out of contract next summer but Town are understood to have the option to extend his deal by another season.

McKenna, who previously spoke at length in an interview alongside chairman Mark Ashton for TownTV, reiterated the challenging decision he had to make to allow Chaplin to head south.

“I’m sure anyone who was bored over the international break has seen the piece that we done on the club channels,” he said. “I’ve spoken about that but for Conor I don’t mind again.

“As I’ve said, he’s someone who I hold and everyone at the club holds in the highest regard as a person and as a player. Like we do with all the players really, but especially in Conor’s case, I’ve had honest conversations with him right through the off-season, pre-season and last season as well.

“He’s someone who went from starting lots of games for us to last year not starting quite so many games. His injury record is really good, but he had a pretty significant injury and missed quite a lot of time in the second half of last season.

“Coming into the season knowing that the competition for minutes was going to be really tough with the other options that we have, of course Conor was competing for those minutes like everybody else.

“Some of those conversations were along the appropriate lines of it being really important at the stage of Conor’s career to be starting games week in, week out, especially having not done it last year.

“His love for the club and want to stay part of the group was counteracted by knowing for his career that it’s really important he starts regularly this year because he’s got years ahead as a player and wants to be in the best position for those.

“The opportunity came up pretty late on with the offer to go on loan to Portsmouth, it’s something that he wanted to look into. He is a big loss to the group, but at the same time, he’s a modern legend of the club and deserved the respect to look at options and what is best for him.

“In the end, he decided that a loan move to Portsmouth, where he has a great history, his local team, where he’s got a great chance to play regularly, of course with the opportunity to even come back here in January if not the summer, was a good move for him, and we have depth in those positions that we feel we can still have a successful season.

“It was the decision that he reached and we support him with it. We’ll all be watching his games and wishing him the best and staying in very close contact.”

Another player who departed the Blues on a temporary basis on deadline day was winger Chiedozie Ogbene, who moved to this weekend’s opponents Sheffield United for the season.

McKenna dismissed the idea that it was a risk to send the Irishman to a divisional rival, instead focusing on the opportunity Ogbene has to get regular game time off the back of an Achilles injury that ended last season prematurely in October.

He said: “Not so much in terms of a Championship rival, because almost everyone can be a Championship rival in this division it’s that tight. There’s probably 20 teams aiming to get in the play-offs this year, everyone’s a rival and can compete against everyone, so not so much about that.

“A decision around whether to let Chieo go on loan. He’s coming back from a really big injury, probably got thrust into the team a bit earlier than what was ideal in terms of our shortness in that position with the way different circumstances went over the summer.

“We felt and he felt a period of hopefully playing games regularly will help him develop his physical level, his confidence and his rhythm.

“That was going to be a little bit harder to do this year here with Kasey [McAteer] coming in, Sindre [Walle Egeli] signing, and Wes [Burns] being not too far away. Hopefully he’ll get the opportunity to do that now at Sheffield United.

“He’s a wonderful person and a real asset to the football club. We fully believe that he will recover his best physical level, then he can hopefully be a really good player for us again in the future.”

Town’s squad turnover over the season included the departures of double promotion-winning trio Sam Morsy, Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess.

Asked about how he feels seeing those players leave, McKenna said: “There’s different emotions. Sadness, there’s no two ways about it, you’re sad to see them as people.

“I spoke to Samy on the phone last night and you miss them as people, you grow an affinity with them and there’s a friendship there, especially senior players like that through that period of time.

“We miss them as people, we miss their qualities on the pitch, but each situation is different and you can’t put those players or any other situation in the same bracket.

“Each situation is different, each player has their own wishes, desires and their own career and the club has their ambitions and goals. You hope that they can match up and work well for everyone but they don’t always, especially with the rate of change here at the club.

“Some big and important players and people have left us, I don’t think it’s necessary for that to happen for the club to grow but I also don’t think it necessarily needs to be a detriment to the club’s growth.

“New players have arrived who can bring a lot of good things to the football club. There’s players here who have the opportunity and challenge now to grow and become big players for the football club, big players in the community and all of those things.

"There’s some big losses there, we know that, but we’ve arrived with a really good squad with some really good players and really good people. It’s up to us all now to push on with the next step.”

McKenna continued: “Each situation is different. It’s not fair to categorise all of the situations the same and it’s not fair to reveal private conversations that you’ve had because each one is different.

“Of course, in some of those situations, some players have left even if minutes weren’t as guaranteed as they might be at another club because our squad is going to be strong and deep.

“You would like to keep players around to be part of it, but each player has the right to want to do what they think is best for their career as well, especially when you have a group of players who have played in the Premier League last year.

"Different opportunities have arose for different players. Some in foreign countries, some in terms of financially really good contracts that wouldn’t have been possible or appropriate to match, others in terms of the likelihood of starting week in, week out which most players love to do and is their overriding desire.

“Each situation has been different and we’ve tried to deal with each one with respect, especially with the players who have been here and been part of it as I think they’ve deserved that respect.

“It’s probably even more damaging to the club to have some of those players here if they’re unhappy to be here because of their status that they’ve had in the club.

“We’ve tried to respect each situation as a club and still arrive with the best squad that we possibly can. That was one of the big challenges over the summer and we’ve gladly arrived to where we have a group settled now and ready to push on.”

Photo: TWTD

Vic added 16:10 - Sep 11 Fantastic words about Conor. Makes so much sense when he spells it out like this and surely makes the club as a whole a place that other players are more likely to want to come to if they know they will be treated with respect rather than as a commodity.
11

Bazza8564 added 16:55 - Sep 11 Well said Vic! Spot on
0

Jugsy added 17:09 - Sep 11 There's contracts and there's doing the right things by people. I've always said in the industry in work in that if we can't solve things by discussion and have to look up the terms of the agreement, we've gone really wrong. McKenna is a great leader of this club, we're incredibly lucky to have him steering this ship. We have a deep squad of first team players and I don't envy his job to try and keep the majority happy with their game time.

1

ArnieM added 17:39 - Sep 11 Good luck Conor. But I do hope you come back to us at some point.....
2

armchaircritic59 added 17:58 - Sep 11 I think there's very little there anyone can seriously argue with. That's about as close as you'll get to a football manager saying exactly what he feels and thinks and not just going into " club speak " mode. Some will disagree I expect, but hey, friendly ( I hope ) disagreement is what this site thrives on!
0

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls