We've (Pompey) turned down a £250k plus add ons bid from yourselves for Chaplin. Feeling is you'll come back in with an improved bid - we are likely holding out for something around the £400-450k mark. Jackett is holding out for that for us to go and fund a replacement - he's got his eye on a couple of other options and Conor wants to go and play football regularly.
Just a word on him. Outstanding natural talent and finisher. His breakthrough season under Paul Cook was when we also had McNulty and they are both very similar players in terms of style, so can definitely see why you'd be in for him. McNulty was good for us, but was never the same after the January of that season when Caolan Lavery went back to Sheff Weds and by the end, Chaplin was outperforming him and carried that through to the start of what ended up being our promotion winning season. Sparky has done well to get himself a Championship move imo, and has proven himself again with yourselves, surpassing his performances with us. As for Chaplin now, he stalled a little bit at the end of that promotion winning season and even more so last season, despite some key goals in games away at Wigan and MK Dons. There are some question marks over his fitness to play 90 minutes as well. His record from the bench as opposed to when he starts is stark. Has very much made himself into a 'Solskjaer style' super-sub with us, which is a tag he absolutely hates. He's tried to 'beef himself up' and I think that's been to his detriment, as he's not as quick in a sprint race as what he was at 18. The challenge for him is to replicate his 30 min form over 90 mins, and he can't see a way past Pitman and Hawkins here for that to happen. Despite that, he's still capable of getting a goal out of absolutely nothing, and remains very quick over 4 or 5 yards, though not for long sprints as he was at first.
I'll be sorry to see him go personally, because he's a total predator, but at the same time I acknowledge it would be a good move for all parties.