BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – While the Chicago Fire still await confirmation of Shaun Maloney’s impending switch to English Championship club Hull City, it appears head coach Frank Yallop already has the perfect replacement on his books in local boy Harry Shipp.
Scottish international Maloney underwent a medical with Hull on Monday and, according to Yallop, the deal should be sealed in the next “24-48 hours.” It will bring a premature end to a tenure which promised so much after the playmaker’s arrival from Wigan Athletic ahead of the 2015 MLS season.
However, the ability of Shipp is likely to soften the blow of losing the club’s marquee signing and highest earner, and the second-year player said he will be happy to take on a more central role should Yallop call upon him to fill the void left by Maloney.
“That’s kind of more my natural position to be anywhere in the middle,” Shipp told MLSsoccer.com Monday. “It’s unfortunate not to have him here, but I think he was someone that saw the game similar to me. It was fun to play with him, but for me, taking on greater responsibility is something that I’ve always wanted, and hopefully going forward I’m able to do that successfully.”
While Yallop will be cautious about loading too much responsibility onto Shipp’s young shoulders, he believes the 23-year-old Homegrown Player has the ability to step into the role in the closing 10 games, beginning with the visit of the high-flying New York Red Bulls to Toyota Park on Wednesday (8:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
“I think it’s difficult for any of the players for me to say now, 'You’ve got to do this, that and the other,'” Yallop said. “Harry’s played pretty well this year. Maybe the numbers don’t show it, but he’s played a number of different positions. He’s not a natural forward, he’s an attacking-type midfielder, I think.”
Maloney cited “personal reasons” when he approached Yallop about a return to the UK some weeks back.
“He came to me a few weeks ago (saying) he wants to move back to the UK to be near his family,” Yallop told reporters Monday on his weekly conference call. “It doesn’t need to be public what that is, but that’s the reason I got. Unless he wants to let you guys know, it’s absolutely private, and myself, the club and Andrew Hauptman, the owner, have been very accommodating in making sure that can happen.”
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The Fire rejected Hull’s initial bid for Maloney earlier this month, and Yallop confirmed he did not want to lose a player he insists improved his team every time he played. The statistics suggest that that is true, as the Fire were a much more potent team with the 32-year-old in the starting lineup and went 4-6-4 when he started, 2-7-1 when he didn't.
“I didn’t want to lose the player; maybe he didn’t quite get the numbers and didn’t quite do this and that, but I tell you what, when Shaun was on the field for us, I thought we looked a good team,” Yallop stressed. “He’ll be missed, I didn’t want to lose him and I think he’s a very good player. I felt Shaun, for the most part, maybe the last couple of games his mind was elsewhere because of the reasons we talked about, but other than that, I thought he gave everything he could for the team and the club.”
While losing a key player late in the season cannot be ideal, the Fire's take of a transfer fee paid for Maloney would put them in great position to bolster their squad in the offseason.
“We’re going to be fine,” Yallop added, “it’s going to be a good transaction for all parties once it gets done, and obviously we move on once it’s done, if it gets done.”
