That's the concern. Seems like he knows where the goal is. I think the issue at Pompey is not his talent just that they play one up front and they have Pitman.
If you look at the amount of time between the announcement of the bid for McNulty being accepted and Reading announcing the signing I think you can be pretty sure they'd already had talks with McNulty's representatives.
It could just be that Robins thinks Chaplin is better than Eisa, or at least a better fit for our team. At the end of the day his job rides on the decisions he makes so you have to trust his judgement.