Why Did We Buy Murphy?

[PoshSpur]

I was at home last night looking at the very bad paint job my landlord did, when it dawned on me; why did we sign Danny Murphy?

If we are never going to play him, then why sign him? It's not like he's in his early 20's and we're waiting for him to develop, so why spend £2 million? I would have thought that keeping that money for another transfer would have been better. We're also paying his wages; a reported £21,000 per week. So we've forked out a further £500,000 on his wages since January 2006.

Does anyone have a valid answer?

[Mort09]

Seemed like a good idea at the time?
Same with Jenas if you ask me

[DigitalTron]

Honestly, I have been scratching my head since this transfer first started being reported. It absolutely makes no sense to me. Murphy is an average creative central midfielder. We have a bazillion people who fill that role ahead of him. The only thing I can come up with is that he was semi-talented and English.

Spurs policy of buying talented English players is undoubtably a good one, particularly buying them young when they're affordable, providing them training and playing time to improve, and letting them blossom into top notch players like Carrick and Lennon. But Murphy is neither young nor unfinished. He's already the finished article, and it's just not good enough to be anything more than a squad player--something that he's proven before that he's not going to accept. Honestly, this is the most puzzling move Spurs have made since Jol arrived. I may not have been a Staltieri fan, but he was an upgrade and could handle being a squad player if/when we upgraded again. Even that move made sense. Muphy? I just don't get it.

-Digital

[THFC1]

We bought him to teach him a lesson, when we first went for him he probably would have been a starter but he went to Charlton, so now we have the luxury of playing him in the reserves.

I'm sure the club are trying to ship him somewhere before the window closes. He could end up at Wigan even if its not in a deal for Chimbonda.

[OrlandoSPUR]

....we got him to weaken Charltons european challenge last year....it worked well eh? :D

[PoshSpur]

....we got him to weaken Charltons european challenge last year....it worked well eh? :D


...yours and Stu's comments, even though they sound very far-fetched, seem to be the most inteligent.

I'm sure he will be part of the Chimbo deal (if we get him that is).

[pookspur]

i dunno. he was class at charlton. he showed greater vision in attack there than any of our fleet of midfielders has shown over the last two years.

i, too, have been disappointed with what i've seen of him at spurs; but certainly no worse than what jenas has provided (at 7 or 8 million, if i recall).

i realize that jenas has had his moments; but when you watch him give us literally nothing for 90 minutes, as he did against bolton and everton, well, hell, i don't know how murph (or anyone) could give us any less.

i figured he just had trouble gelling with the squad when he came in late last year, and was hoping that he'd get more minutes and show better form come the new season. guess not.

still, if one wishes to question the purchase of murphy, one may. but if one wishes to vent his frustration with the manner in which our season has begun, he would do better to focus on the players who have given us little or nothing while on the pitch.

[PoshSpur]

i dunno. he was class at charlton. he showed greater vision in attack there than any of our fleet of midfielders has shown over the last two years.

i, too, have been disappointed with what i've seen of him at spurs; but certainly no worse than what jenas has provided (at 7 or 8 million, if i recall).

i realize that jenas has had his moments; but when you watch him give us literally nothing for 90 minutes, as he did against bolton and everton, well, hell, i don't know how murph (or anyone) could give us any less.

i figured he just had trouble gelling with the squad when he came in late last year, and was hoping that he'd get more minutes and show better form come the new season. guess not.

still, if one wishes to question the purchase of murphy, one may. but if one wishes to vent his frustration with the manner in which our season has begun, he would do better to focus on the players who have given us little or nothing while on the pitch.



....great point Dave.

Davids-----Please go home
Jenas------Follow him

[tomas_brolin]

who knows... he is a decent player.. but spurs dont need him... maybe jol has a mancrush on all midfielders hence the surplus??

if lee is going... i say use that money to fund for chimboda and send murphy there to weaken the blow..

[Danners9]

Bought him to sell him on.

His season at Charlton wasn't as great as people want to remember. He was dropped, remember, because he no longer fit into the system. Darren Bent outgrew him, no longer needed the through balls to score goals.

I don't know why we wanted him in the first place, let alone second time around.

[PoshSpur]

Bought him to sell him on.

His season at Charlton wasn't as great as people want to remember. He was dropped, remember, because he no longer fit into the system. Darren Bent outgrew him, no longer needed the through balls to score goals.

I don't know why we wanted him in the first place, let alone second time around.


....well after the three that have just come in, it looks like we didn't buy him to further our transfer activities.

[Skizz]

Possibility of him being the creative midfielder to play alongside Carrick last season:

Jenas/Murphy - Carrick

In theory, at the time Murphy was signed you would be able to see Jol's thinking. Sign another creative mid, so if Jenas is having one of his off games you can send Murphy on in his place to spark something. However, with the departure of Carrick, and Zokora looking unlikely to be a direct replacement, Jol now has a problem. With other signings in the pipeline, the central midfield is looking overloaded with choices - Jenas, Zokora, Murphy, Ghaly (did you even buy him with the intention to play him???), and possibly Davids, Tainio and Ziegler. Murphy is now looking at the possibility of getting very few games considering that Jol obviously has a favoured system and back up plan - neither of which seem to involve him.

[tapper]

What we did in the winter was so obviously panic driven because we hadn't signed anybody. Finally, we had sold Davis and Mendes for decent prices to Portsmouth, relieving the congestion in the center of the park. We were a left winger away from having a very solid 8 to cover 4 positions.

*Left Winger*
Carrick
Jenas
Lennon

Tainio
Davids
Routledge
Reid

With Huddlestone and Ziegler coming back in the summer.

It all made perfect sense. ...but what do we do instead? We buy direct replacements for the players we had just sold to Portsmouth that we never needed in the first place.

Then we loaned out Routledge, because having more than one winger on the squad is more than we can bear. And there we were again with essentially 7 central midfielders, and 1 winger. It drives me absolutely crazy.

And again, we're offloading Routledge and bringing in Malbranque...another player who plays the center of the park. Huddlestone is here now as well. Now its NINE central midfielders.

All I can glean from this is that Jol is planning on switching to 4-3-3, where you don't really use wide midfielders. But even if we played with three center midfielders, we still have about three too many players there. Murphy and Ghaly might have been good from a value standpoint of talent vs. price. But that doesn't justify buying two players you have absolutely no use for. And their uselessness has been confirmed by the fact that they never play.

And Skizz, it is entirely too early to write of Zokora like that. He's unlikely to be a replacement for Carrick? He's had about 120 minutes on the pitch so far, and had good and bad moments (for a squad where NOBODY looks like quality at the moment, save for Benoit).

Give him a chance to settle in...at least 10 matches or so...before you reach a verdict. Players new to the Premiership almost always struggle with its pace at the beginning.

[PoshSpur]

Possibility of him being the creative midfielder to play alongside Carrick last season:

Jenas/Murphy - Carrick

In theory, at the time Murphy was signed you would be able to see Jol's thinking. Sign another creative mid, so if Jenas is having one of his off games you can send Murphy on in his place to spark something. However, with the departure of Carrick, and Zokora looking unlikely to be a direct replacement, Jol now has a problem. With other signings in the pipeline, the central midfield is looking overloaded with choices - Jenas, Zokora, Murphy, Ghaly (did you even buy him with the intention to play him???), and possibly Davids, Tainio and Ziegler. Murphy is now looking at the possibility of getting very few games considering that Jol obviously has a favoured system and back up plan - neither of which seem to involve him.



.....I totally forgot about him. Looks like Martin also has.

[Skizz]

And Skizz, it is entirely too early to write of Zokora like that. He's unlikely to be a replacement for Carrick? He's had about 120 minutes on the pitch so far, and had good and bad moments (for a squad where NOBODY looks like quality at the moment, save for Benoit).

Give him a chance to settle in...at least 10 matches or so...before you reach a verdict. Players new to the Premiership almost always struggle with its pace at the beginning.

I never wrote off Zokora, what I meant was that Zokora is more of a box-to-box midfielder as opposed to a holding midfielder, which is what Carrick is. I feel personally that using Zokora in that role would be wrong, and detrimental to the benefits that he offers the team in a box-to-box role. I never meant to write him off, I've said for ages that I wished Arsenal signed him!

[PoshSpur]

I never wrote off Zokora, what I meant was that Zokora is more of a box-to-box midfielder as opposed to a holding midfielder, which is what Carrick is. I feel personally that using Zokora in that role would be wrong, and detrimental to the benefits that he offers the team in a box-to-box role. I never meant to write him off, I've said for ages that I wished Arsenal signed him!



....so I take it that you're new to football? Zokora is probably the best African holding midfielder. Carrick should be and will be used as a box-to-box player if United get Hargreaves.

[Spur_Forever]

Well, Murphy has had a few games to settle in and is finally starting to show some form. He had a very decent game (I thought) against Slavia and of course, scored the first goal today.

Looks like his purchase isn't as misguided as a lot of us once thought.

Of course, he's still slow as ********. And he did tire considerably in the second half today. He also didn't look as effective on the left as he did in the middle (on Thursday). But he's given us that little bit of creativity that we had been lacking since Carrick left.

Of course, his utility will decrease quite a bit once Malbranque regains fitness (as Steed is imo the superior player) but until then, seems like Murph will tide us through. I suspect he'll look even better when we have the pace of Lennon added to the midfield.

[PoshSpur]

With a run of a few games under his belt, I think he'll be ok.

[Winston Smith]

Murphy was brilliant for Liverpool. A real unsung hero. And he's settling in with us as well. Once he's in his stride he'll knock in a few for us. At least until Andy Garcia gets off the ******** and actually manages to get to the balls played to him, he looked knackered yesterday.

[Danners9]

At least until Andy Garcia gets off the ******** and actually manages to get to the balls played to him, he looked knackered yesterday.

Well, he had been out for 3 weeks with a groin strain!