Conor Chaplin returning to Portsmouth FC is exciting – but there is one potential issue | OneFootball

The signing and return of Conor Chaplin is an exciting one for Portsmouth, but it could hurt Adrian Segecic.

Portsmouth have started the 2025/26 Championship season steadily, and one player brought in on deadline day, Conor Chaplin, will leave supporters with a lot of excitement about the rest of this campaign.

Under the management of John Mousinho, Pompey have risen back to the Championship after winning the 2023/24 League One title, and they managed to, in the end, easily steer themselves clear of the bottom three and the relegation places last season.

This time around, after a quieter but still reasonably busy summer transfer window, Portsmouth will be looking to kick on and, with Josh Murphy still at the club amid previous interest from Leicester City, may believe they could even do something special and really push on up the table.

Last season saw the romantic return of Matt Ritchie on a free transfer from Newcastle United, and he has since moved on to Reading, whilst this season has seen Conor Chaplin brought back on loan from Ipswich Town.

Chaplin, born in Worthing, came through the academy at Pompey and began his professional career there, making over 100 appearances before being moved on to Coventry City.

His return, after spells with Barnsley and Ipswich, where he helped the Tractor Boys gain automatic promotion to the Premier League as Pompey came up from the third-tier, is a romantic one, but there is a reasonable feeling that it could disrupt things a little.

Adrian Segecic could be stifled by the return of Conor Chaplin at Portsmouth

Portsmouth have started this season well, with an opening day victory at the Kassam Stadium against Oxford United getting things underway in a positive manner, especially with the only goal of that game being scored by summer signing Adrian Segecic.

21-year-old Segecic is the latest in a reasonably long line of players to have moved from the Australian A-League to Fratton Park in recent seasons, following on from the likes of Kusini Yengi, Thomas Waddingham and Jacob Farrell.

Yengi showed real glimpses of genuine quality in their promotion-winning campaign, but Segecic has perhaps already had the best impact in terms of his level and we are only a month into his first season down on the south coast.

Segecic has notched twice in his first four Championship appearances for the club, and he has been a real standout star in the so-called ‘number ten’ position in behind Colby Bishop.

However, that is the position that Conor Chaplin is best suited to, and the position that the 28-year-old has proved to be excellent in at second-tier level for Ipswich.

Chaplin even started Ipswich’s most recent outing, a 2-2 draw with Derby County, in the attacking midfield role and, side from the romanticism of it, he is unlikely to have moved from Ipswich to Portsmouth to play the role of a squad filler.

That would therefore lead to the inevitability of Chaplin overtaking Segecic in the ‘number ten’ position, which seems remarkably harsh on the Australian, who has had his first senior call-up to the national team during this international break.

Segecic is a player that could really fulfil the Pompey plan of finding cheap talent from one of the more untapped markets and then being able to sell on for enormous profit.

Chaplin’s arrival is a good one for footballing reasons, as well as the good willfrom the supporters, but it could be one that stifles and limits the progress of Segecic.

John Mousinho could get creative to fit in both Conor Chaplin and Adrian Segecic at Portsmouth

Throughout his time in charge down at Fratton Park, former Oxford man John Mousinho has preferred the 4-2-3-1 system, although he has been adaptable to change.

Callum Lang joined from Wigan Athletic mid-way through their promotion-winning campaign in League One, and that allowed Pompey to play more of a 4-4-1-1 or even just a flat 4-4-2 a lot more often.

If that was to be the case then it wouldn’t be a major surprise to see Bishop partnered with Chaplin and Segecic shifted out to one of the flanks not occupied by Murphy.

John Mousinho has emerged as one of the most highly-rated young coacheds in the EFL, and his next task is to kick Pompey on a bit; finding a tactical solution to the dilemma of having too many good players will always be a good barometer of just how far a coach can go.