Conor Chaplin, Josh Murphy and the inside story of a Portsmouth transfer deadline day to endure
It got underway with Josh Murphy and Leicester City the focus, but on a frantic final day of transfer activity to remember a Pompey homecoming became the focus. Here’s how things developed and an assessment of a defining deadline day.
The noise started a little past noon on a start to deadline day which had revealed a few of its secrets, but little of the ecstatic excitement which lay in wait.
The News had been across the developing transfer stories at the summer window’s climax, the successful pursuits of Makenzie Kirk, Club Brugge’s Josef Bursik, Crystal Palace’s Franco Umeh and, of course, the Josh Murphy saga.
A defining Pompey transfer deadline day to endure
But there was one more story to trail, and this was going to develop from a whisper to a transfer hurricane within the space of a couple of hours.
The return of Conor Chaplin is a Pompey deadline transfer capture for the ages, a piece of final-day business unsurpassed certainly since the club’s Premier League days.
You’re probably going back 17 years to Jermain Defoe creeping under the mock Tudor facade at the end of Frogmore Road in the dead of night, for a deadline deal which has resonated as much as this one.
It’s impossible to do so, but take out of the fact this is an emotional Blues homecoming for one of our own. Discount the reality we are seeing one of the most popular figures to kiss the star and crescent back at PO4 once again.
Purely from an objective football assessment, John Mousinho is getting an attacking threat in the prime of his career at the age of 28 - one who made 22 Premier League appearances last term.
This is marksman who fired in 13 Championship goals the season before helping Ipswich Town reach the highest level of the game, a whopping 29 finishes the campaign before in their League One promotion.
It’s not just a deal to tug at the heartstrings, it’s one which is making the Championship stand up and take notice of Pompey - the second tier deal of the day in the view of many impartial transfer assessments.
Conor Chaplin capture one of Pompey’s best deadline day deals
If that is the best bit of business on the final period of trading for the summer, then the story it usurped isn’t far behind.
For all of the consistent rhetoric from the club’s football operation over star man Murphy’s future, there was always a concern over the head-turning impact Leicester City’s late interest would have on the winger.
Yet the message in the face of the Foxes’ rejected bid for the man who delivered 21 contributions last term remained the same, and wasn’t bluster.
That was heeded and the fact Murphy is staying is as big a cause for celebration as any of the 11 signings made this summer, well most of them…
Pompey have recruited diligently, with seven recruits going into transfer deadline day adding depth across the pitch.
But, by Mousinho’s acknowledgement, the sizable gap left by Matt Ritchie’s exit to Reading hadn’t been filled going into the final days of business.
And, even without the lop-sided weight afforded transfer deadline day recruitment, this has always felt like a window which would be defined by its final business.
Now we are reflecting on a deadline day up with the best, with two up-and-coming talents recruited for decent fees supplemented by a very competent addition to the keeper department - and Murphy staying.
But then came the final head-spinning confirmation, as the clock ticked past the 7pm deadline and nerves began to fray.
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We waited for the club to dust off their Chaplin archive images and video for their announcement. And waited some more, with that final space in Pompey’s 25-man squad still vacant.
Then, there he was, back in royal blue as has always suited him best.
Chaplin’s home, in his pomp and ready for a debut down the road to match the seismic impact of a deadline day to endure.