Connor Ripley has made nearly 300 professional appearances across the football league. The trials and tribulations have turned him into the goalkeeper he is today.
Header image - REX Features via BBC Sport
The loan system can be vital for goalkeepers and Connor Ripley, who started at Middlesbrough and is now a permanent feature between the sticks for Swindon Town, is testament to that, having been on a total of nine loans throughout his career.
The 32-year-old tells Goalkeeper.com that the nature of his position “definitely” plays into that type of career path, but says “it was easy in a way” having a temporary home so often.
“I moved around as a kid,” he says. “My parents lived down Blackburn way, but all my family was up in Middlesbrough, so I didn't really have a permanent home when I was playing for Middlesbrough. At that point, it was just like, 'Right, let's get as much experience as I can.' I believe it's vital, especially as a young goalkeeper, you've got to get as much experience as possible.”
Not every loan will be a success, however. “I went to Oxford for one game, and then I got sent back,” recalls Ripley, adding “I went to Bradford in League One for one of my first loans, and I didn't play a game.”
Ripley’s career has taken him across the UK, often winning plaudits wherever he’s played. But his time between the sticks has also been indicative of the natural constraints of the goalkeeper position. Only one person can play, and that adds pressure to switching clubs.
The goalkeeper reminisces on the footing gained from “four months literally in the middle of nowhere in Sweden” with Graham Potter’s Ostersund for his first playing loan and the “good standard of football” at Motherwell. A “wild season” at Oldham Athletic followed which Ripley places as his top loan move. “I had probably the best season of my life, breaking the clean sheet record for Oldham, despite us nearly being relegated. So, that shows how well I'd done.”
That loan opened a door at parent club Middlesbrough that was soon closed, as Ripley explains: “Steve Agnew was the manager at the time and we'd just got relegated from the Premier League. I got told that I was going to be number one, so I was over the moon. Then Garry Monk came in and bought Darren Randolph. You can't really complain about that. Someone who spent about £6m on a goalkeeper, they don't want a young lad coming through the academy."
Ripley’s career has taken him across the UK, often winning plaudits wherever he’s played. But his time between the sticks has also been indicative of the natural constraints of the goalkeeper position. Only one person can play, and that adds pressure to switching clubs.
When it became apparent that match minutes on Teesside would be scarce, Ripley explained how he “had every club asking me to go, especially in League One.” He opted for then-Championship club Burton Albion but admits that “in hindsight, I should never have gone. I got promised I was number one and then didn't play. That's one of those things in football, you might get promised everything, but it doesn't mean they're going to do it. And that's the harsh reality that I had to learn.”
The loan was cut short at Ripley’s request in January, having played only a handful of games. Then-League One side Bury - with ownership troubles already brewing - signed Ripley for the rest of the season, but the Englishman admits how it wasn’t the best environment to prosper in, with the club relegated at the end of the 2017/18 season.
After one final loan as a Boro player, a season at Accrington Stanley in League One, Ripley permanently departed to join Preston North End where he “met some amazing people” and found the area he still lives in today, but didn’t have the same joy on the pitch.
“I again got told I was going to be playing,” he says. “Declan Rudd was goalie at the time, and he just wasn't having a good time at that moment, but then all of a sudden he picked up his form and it was one of those things. Then I snapped my ankle in half after four months of me being there. I just couldn't really get up to speed with it after that. It was a struggle.”
He continues: “There was a lot of self-doubt at Preston, whether I was good enough or whether I should be there or should be playing. I played Man City, Brighton, and then I had one of the worst games of my life playing for Preston against Norwich. I think that was the final nail in the coffin for me at Preston.”
Showing the power a short-term move can have, Ripley says that an emergency loan to Salford City towards the end of his time with Preston “was just what I needed”. He adds: “I hadn't played for a few years, and I just needed to go out and play regular football. I played nine games on an emergency loan, so it was amazing.”
Ripley hasn’t been on loan since his time at Moor Lane in 2021, but every one of those he went on provided valuable experience. As the man himself puts it: “Every bit and every second I spent on loan, I've learned something, and I've been able to take that into my game and the way I look at clubs, and look at the players, and just see how lucky I am.”
He joined Morecambe in League One and admits there was a change in mentality permanently joining a club outside of England’s top two tiers. “When you're on loan, it's easy to get into a bit of a comfortable position where you think ‘if it doesn't work out, I just go back to my permanent club’,” he says. “But when it comes down to the permanent club, if it doesn't work out, you get released.”
He admits being “worried” joining a club he knew would be “up against it”, but shares that “in hindsight, it was one of the best moves in my career.” He describes Morecambe as an “absolutely incredible club with incredible people, the fans, the setup, the people who work at Morecambe, it deserves a lot more than they got from the previous owner.”
Ripley will be fondly remembered too, as he won their Player of the Season for 2022/23 and was named League One’s Player of the Month for November, something he recognises “is really hard for a goalkeeper to do”.
He was then part of a relegated Port Vale team - saving an Andy Carroll penalty on his debut against Reading in 2023/24 - and a promotion push to get them back up to the third division before “a bit of a misunderstanding” with Darren Moore saw the goalkeeper lose his spot in the team.
That and Ian Holloway’s influence saw Ripley move to his current club Swindon, where he initially joined on a contract until the end of last season before signing a two-year deal in June for the side that is currently pushing at the top end of League Two.
“I had quite a bit of interest but there was something about Swindon,” he says. “After spending half the season here and the way we played and the way the manager was building something, I was thinking, Swindon will have a really good chance next season to get promoted.”
From a goalkeeping standpoint, he also has “exceptional goalie coach” Steve Mildenhall and “incredible person, incredible goalkeeper” Lewis Ward in support this season.
In addition to a club that looks to have become home, another sign of Ripley settling is his business Mini Dunes, a cafe in Preston. “All my life is literally about football, football, football,” he says. “To do something different is amazing because you're starting to learn what to do and then dealing with other situations, other than football. I'm playing in front of 10,000 people on a Saturday, and then I'm bringing in stock for Mini Dunes on the Sunday.”
He adds: “I've got a great partner, I've got beautiful children, they're in school. I've got friends in Preston, and now I've got a business there. It does help in football when you've got a settled life and you've got that community around you where you've got them loving people. For me right now, I feel like I'm playing good football, my life's in order and I've got something going on with Mini Dunes.”
The journey through a career in football can take you far and wide, but, as they say, things tend to work out in the end. That certainly seems to be the case for Connor Ripley.
