Ipswich Town: Conor Chaplin previews Brighton & Hove Albion trip

Ipswich Town had 10 players away during the international break, but he wasn’t one of them. That doesn’t mean that he's had a couple of weeks off to relax, however. He’s been in at Playford Road with his team-mates who weren’t called up, working hard in training to get ready for the next block of fixtures.

“It’s been really good,” he said. “It’s an intense group – we maybe had 12 or 13 of us – but it was really important for the new lads that we signed in the summer and didn’t go away. It’s a really good time to get really good details into the boys and some training time as well.

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“We’ll probably get more of that this season than we’ve been used to because of the schedule, but maximising the time training during the international break will be big for us.

“The main difference is numbers. It maybe changes the sessions in some sort of way, but we’ve also got good players in the Under-23s if we need to boost numbers and have a proper tear-up, 11v11 or something like that – then we can do.

“It’s probably more detailed during the internationals, it gives us a chance to hone in on those things and the little things that the boss is implementing.”

Some supporters have been frustrated with how the start of the season has been scheduled. After a whole summer without competitive club football, Town played just three Premier League games before their two-week break. Given how well they played against Fulham at the end of last month, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it impacts their momentum.

The 27-year-old captained Town in their Carabao Cup exit at AFC Wimbledon last month (Image: Ross Halls)

Chaplin disagrees, however, stressing that it’s just part and parcel of being a top-flight footballer.

“For the majority of the squad, we’ve been used to the EFL schedule throughout our careers,” he explained. “It’s always been Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, which you love as a player.

“Then when you’re in the Premier League, it’s a lot of Saturday to Saturday and international breaks. For the first couple of months, maybe two or three months even, it seems like there are breaks all the time because of the three international breaks and Saturday to Saturday games.

“We’re learning about that all the time. I think the boss is big on using the international breaks to train harder than everyone else and to improve a little bit.”

Since arriving from Barnsley in July 2021, Chaplin has been a key player at Portman Road, quickly becoming one of the first names on the team sheet. He made his Premier League debut against Liverpool on the opening day of the season, but he was limited to late cameos against both Manchester City and Fulham.

Asked about his role in the squad, he replied: “I don’t see it changing at all. You have people coming into the football club to improve us, so you’ve got to expect even harder competition.

Chaplin was named on the bench for Ipswich's games against Manchester City and Fulham (Image: Ross Halls)

“The realisation and reality of being in a Premier League squad is that there’s going to be competition absolutely everywhere. I think if you asked every single player from the promotion squad whether they wanted the club to sign this many players, they would’ve all said yes.

“We definitely knew that it’s going to be needed to try and thrive in the Premier League, so that’s what we’re going to try and do. It doesn’t matter if you’re used to starting every single game or you’re not.

“I think the characteristics within the group stay exactly the same and I think you can bring to the group what you always bring to the group – that’s my belief, anyway.”

The competition to start will only ramp up now everyone is in full training. The Blues have a lot of strong attacking talent in their squad, meaning that manager Kieran McKenna will have some tough decisions to make ahead of the trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Seagulls have been one of the standout teams so far this season, having beaten Everton and Manchester United before drawing Arsenal under new boss Fabian Hürzeler.

“They’ve been a good team in the Premier League for a number of years now,” Chaplin argued. “Obviously they’ve got a brand new manager who they got in fairly early in the summer, so it’s probably one where they’ve had a lot of time with him as well. It’s not like he was brought in on the eve of the season. They’ve had some good training time.

Fabian Hürzeler's side picked up seven points from their first three Premier League games of the season (Image: PA)

“They’re a very positively-thinking and attacking team, one that have done well in the Premier League for the last few years.

“They always recruit well, so they’ve got really good players. It’s the same for every single game in the Premier League, I think you’re going to come up against good players.

“It’s one that’s really exciting. I’m excited to go to the stadium and play at the Amex as well – it’s going to be a good one.”

For Chaplin, there’s no better time to get his first Premier League goal. Not only is celebrity fan and Town co-owner Ed Sheeran expected to be in attendance, the 27-year-old is also set to receive strong support from his family, who don’t live far away from where he’ll be playing on Saturday afternoon.

“It’d be amazing,” he admitted. “It’s a fairly local game for me, so I’ll have a lot of family there, being down south. It’s one that I’m really excited for.

“It’d be lovely to get my first Premier League goal.”

Despite his Sussex roots – having been born in Worthing - he never came close to joining the Seagulls at the start of his youth career.

“I was always Portsmouth,” he stated. “It was either one or the other.

Chaplin played with Brighton defender Adam Webster during his time at Portsmouth (Image: PA)

“I was basically bang smack in the middle of Brighton and Portsmouth in terms of location.

“When I was a kid, Portsmouth were in the Premier League at the time and Brighton were maybe in League One at one point.

“Portsmouth were the first ones to find me, so I was there from a little age.”

There is, however, a nice link between Chaplin and Brighton. The 27-year-old is close friends with defender Adam Webster, having played with him at Pompey earlier in his career. Webster was signed by Ipswich in 2016 and ended up at the Amex Stadium three years later after a brief stint at Bristol City.

The pair have kept in touch since their time in League Two. This weekend, there’s a chance they share a pitch in the Premier League, albeit on opposite sides.

“I speak to him every day – he’s my best mate!” Chaplin said about Webster. “Every single day. We haven’t really spoken too much about the game, I think we both know that no one’s going to tell each other the team, so there’s no point in asking.

“We talk about football all the time. I usually talk to him for a half hour or so every morning when I’m on my dog walk. We catch up every day.

“It’s probably no different this week.”