Connor Ripley will not be available to make his Swindon Town debut against his old club Port Vale this weekend due to a “gentleman’s agreement” between the clubs.
Swindon made Ripley their only signing of transfer deadline day on Monday as he arrived from Vale Park having falling out of favour over the last month after starting the first 23 games of the League Two season.
As a permanent signing, there is nothing contractual barring the 31-year-old from making his first start this weekend, but Ian Holloway revealed that he would have to wait for that.
He said: “He is not allowed to start against his old club because of a gentleman’s agreement.
“To be honest, after talking to Connor I didn’t care about that because he was fuming because he wanted to play but sometimes you don’t get to.
“He doesn’t have a God-given right to play in my team but what he does is change the demographic of when we look around and think what we are doing when things aren’t going well.
“I don’t ever want to see that Colchester moment again, I am not saying that that was the goalie’s fault but it was a lack of experience and data in this whole football club and that was wrong but I don’t feel that it is anymore.”
Ripley, for his part, was irritated at not being able to go into the team right away as he wanted to make his mark at Swindon right away.
He said: “I am frustrated that I can’t be a part of it but that is the way that football goes; I won’t go into the details of why I can’t play but it is what it is.
“I am frustrated but it means that I can help in other ways: I can help Jack [Bycroft] get ready for the game, I can help the boys with a little bit of inside information.
“Right now I am a Swindon player and I want Swindon to win.
“Port Vale have got some really good players there and they are starting to click again as they went on a bit of a downturn.
“It is going to be a difficult game and Port Vale are a good club but that doesn’t mean that we can’t.
“I am telling you now that if these boys that I have seen train the last few days do what they do then there is no way they will be beaten.”
