Nathan Jones has rebuffed rumours that a falling out was responsible for selling Joe Morrell to Portsmouth as the Welsh international dropped down to League One after just 11 appearances for the Hatters since signing from Bristol City for £250,000 in October.
The Town boss admitted that he couldn’t guarantee the midfielder enough minutes to keep him satisfied, so the only option was to move him on, with the club keeping to a deal struck with Portsmouth, despite more money being reportedly offered by Ipswich Town in a late hijack attempt.
But after Morrell was a mainstay in Wales’ Euro 2020 squad this summer, he was not named in the matchday squad for Town’s 3-0 Championship opening day victory over Peterborough United on Saturday, having not featured for the club in competitive action since February.
Rumours circulated online that there must being something more to the situation, with a possible row being suggested, though Morrell posted an Instagram story saying, ‘sometimes things just don’t work out but that’s football.’
After his side crashed out of the Carabao Cup on penalties at League Two Stevenage, Jones said: “I hear quite a lot people saying, (but) there’s no fall out. Me and Joe have a really good relationship. They trouble was, Joe wasn’t playing and wasn’t going to get enough minutes in our team, to justify the fact that an international is at our (club).
“He wants to play minutes, we had offers for him. We honoured the deal with Portsmouth. If we’d wanted more money, we could have, but no problem whatsoever.
“Joe wanted to play football and I couldn’t guarantee that Joe would get enough football here, because of what we had. Last year was the same.
“Joe did quite well for us, but we had better midfield players at the time in the building and that’s why he didn’t play. This year, I couldn’t guarantee that he was going to play enough minutes for him to be satisfied.
“He has an international career, his own career to think about, so the only thing, the logical thing to do was to sell him and that’s what we did.
“(It’s an) amicable parting, no problem whatsoever. We thank Joe. He was an excellent trainer, a great lad to have around, no problem.
Are we expected to believe NJ on this? Morrell was better that most of our midfielders last season with the exception of KDH. Still who cares now the guy has gone. NJ has poor man management skills which, is what Big Mick is good at.
NJ will only give the public the ‘official’ line, understandably I suppose – so you believe as much as you choose to believe. According to the manager, all was sweetness and light. Really? But, as you say, the guy has gone. I’m just glad that he’s found himself a good spot – just as Moncur seems to have done at Hull.