Essendon is confident veteran Paul Chapman will remain at the club in 2015 with negotiations on a new deal heading in the right direction.

Chapman played 20 games in the red and black during his first season at the club finishing ninth in the club’s best and fairest.

General Manager Football Operations Rob Kerr said he was confident the club would come to an agreement with Chapman to play on.

“It was disappointing to see the story in Sunday’s paper as we have been comfortable with how negotiations have been progressing over the last few weeks,” Kerr said.

“Adrian Dodoro in his role as list manager has been negotiating with Paul’s agent Liam Pickering on a new agreement.”

“Those negotiations were continuing last week and we believe are headed in a positive direction with what we considered a fair and reasonable approach.”

“Based on those discussions we feel we are fairly close to reaching an agreement with Paul given the way in which those negotiations have been progressing.”