Jacob Murphy interview: ‘I hope England are casting an eye on what I’m doing’

Jacob Murphy talks about “callusing the mind”, and it is an intriguing phrase. Just as skin can be toughened through manual labour, so the brain can be rewired to plough through difficulty. Although Murphy is speaking about himself, it applies just as much to his club Newcastle United, newly-transformed from perennial losers into ice-cold winners.

Amid stiff competition, Murphy has a strong claim to be their most compelling story this season. He might be the Premier League’s most underrated player (last month, The Athletic used his photograph to illustrate an article discussing that subject), and he is definitely its most meme-able, but reappraisal is overdue.

How about this: Murphy is a Newcastle legend. By winning the Carabao Cup in March, the club’s first domestic trophy for 70 years, he and his team-mates automatically became history boys on Tyneside. Yet winning has meant forward propulsion. From being 12th in the Premier League in December, they are now one game away from qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

How about this: only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has set up more Premier League goals than Murphy’s 12 this season, most of them made for Alexander Isak, and he has also chipped in with eight of his own. “What I love most is helping to get the best out of my team-mates,” he says.

How about this: Murphy is on the longlist for the next England squad, which will be announced this week. At the age of 30, the notion of a first full call-up feels like sweetest logic. Like team-mate Dan Burn, who won his first cap at 32 in those heady March days post-Wembley, his career has been mazy, but he has risen within Newcastle’s headlong climb.

“I hope England are casting an eye on what I’m doing, because I feel my game would be appreciated in the setup,” he says. “I’m a different profile to every other winger in the league; other than me, Brennan Johnson (Tottenham Hotspur’s Wales international) is the only other right-footed right-winger and it brings a whole different dynamic.

“There’s Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins (as England strikers) and I’d love nothing more than to be putting it in dangerous areas for them to get on the end of. And then off the ball, there are a lot of attributes I think would complement the team. I’d love to showcase them.”

How about this: Murphy is categorically good enough for Eddie Howe’s Newcastle side — the club he and Burn supported as kids. This is a battle he has had to fight, both before their 2021 takeover and since, amid a rush to cast aside the squad’s less glitzy players. This season represents the ultimate riposte but, in any case, Murphy is at “peace with myself”.

“When you’re written off, you get to a point where you don’t take notice,” he says. “As long as the manager and my team-mates value me, that’s it. So when people are cussing you out for not being good enough… well, your favourite (Newcastle) player thinks I’m good enough. I know what I can offer.”

What he offers is all of himself: running, harrying, swinging the ball in from the right and, quite often, Isak meeting it. And then there Murphy is, mouth wide open, sometimes acting up for the cameras but already contemplating what happens next and how he will get there.

How about that?

Murphy is sitting in a classroom at George Stephenson High School in Killingworth, not far from Newcastle’s training ground.

The club’s charitable foundation has a permanent presence here and the winger takes part in a question and answer session with girls from year seven (typically ages 11 and 12), then plays a bit of football. The pupils are enraptured.

Whatever else he does, Murphy will forever be one of the men who reshaped Newcastle’s identity, who brought one of football’s longest waits to a close. Does he feel a sense of magnitude?

“It felt like it was meant to happen,” he says. “We’d had the experience of losing a couple of years earlier (to Manchester United, in a previous Carabao Cup final) and I think everyone was ready this time. It felt organic. Not scary. Almost belonging. As soon as we started, you looked around at our players and felt safe. Even if we’d had to s***house it for the full second half, we were going to do it.”

Doubly impressive was the way a great release did not bring a giant exhalation; after Wembley, Newcastle went again. Beat Everton at St James’ Park on Sunday and they will play in the Champions League for the second time in three seasons, which would represent a stunning success given Howe’s first XI has not been strengthened for three transfer windows.

“What I love about this group is we just fly along steady,” Murphy says. “That’s weird. Everyone talks about living the moment, but we’re always on to the next thing. Maybe once I’ve finished playing, I’ll realise how much of a big deal winning the final was.

“That’s a change to elite behaviour. If you’d asked me 10 years ago what it would be like to win a trophy, I’d have said it would mean everything. You’d be happy with that. And then you win one and you can see why so many of the greats are always chasing the next one.”

Guaranteed a place in the third-tier UEFA Conference League next season by virtue of that trophy, Newcastle have powered on towards Europe’s top club competition. “To be involved in those iconic games is epic,” Murphy says. “We also want to test ourselves. We think we’re ready to compete there, but you earn the right. And it’s just cool, innit?”

Girls’ messages to Murphy from the foundation event (Serena Taylor/The Athletic)

The television camera is panning along a line of players. It is September 19, 2023, the day Newcastle return to the Champions League after an absence of two decades, and the draw has brought them to San Siro, to face Milan. The stadium is throbbing.

As the competition’s theme music blares out, Milan old boy Sandro Tonali glances to the sky and Isak waves at someone in the crowd. Bruno Guimaraes manically chews gum. Murphy, though, is grinning. He puffs out his cheeks. His face speaks for an entire club and it emotes: “Wow.”

Murphy is an expressive footballer. During Newcastle’s resurgence, he has frequently captured the zeitgeist of a club blooming in self-confidence; going viral is another attribute. When he watches this particular clip on a laptop, played back for a bit of fun, it prompts a surprisingly serious answer.

“As soon as we got into the line-up, the music shot on and it was like a flashback,” he says. “I was back at Sheffield Wednesday on loan (in 2019), being left out of the squad for Stoke (City) at home. I’m in the Championship and not playing and at this rate, I’m never going to play for Newcastle again.

“I went to see Garry Monk, the manager, and asked him why I wasn’t playing. He said, ‘I want to see the Jacob everyone was excited about when he was young at Norwich (City)’. He told me he would help me get there, and he did. I wasn’t doing anything wrong — the team was playing well — but I had to fix it.

“I started reading self-help books, like The 5AM Club and The Slight Edge — my holy grail. It’s about the compound effect of working hard, how when you start doing something, you’re not going to see results straightaway, but the more you do it, the more results will come. To take it to another level, I had to get stronger and analyse football more.

“I already had a decent football brain, but I could make it better by watching every winger in the Premier League and seeing who I could nick attributes off. Before you know it, I’m on an upward curve, I’m playing well for Wednesday, not thinking about anything in the grand scheme of things, apart from, ‘Keep going’.

“I still feel I’m on that curve now. So, I’ve gone from thinking I’m not going to play for Newcastle again and then, all those years later, the manager trusts you to start in the Champions League, and I’m in the line and the music is on. That was mega.

“It was like, ‘I did it’. I don’t mean I’d completed football, because I can do more. Next season, we can win another cup. We can challenge harder in the league and close the gap to (Manchester) City, Liverpool and Arsenal. You can see it within touching distance. I really do think we’re close.”

This is part of Murphy’s character, too. Before Newcastle’s losing appearance against Manchester United at Wembley in 2023, The Athletic invited family members to write personal letters to their players and the one from Maxine, his mother, said: “The normal Murphy way of handling success or anything good that happens is to say, ‘Well that’s just the start’.”

“That leads back quite nicely to talking about being a legend because of winning the cup and I’m like, ‘We can go and win another one’,” her son says. “I’m already on to the next thing — Can I get called up by England? Can I do well in the Champions League next year?”

Finally, Murphy takes a breath.

“Anyway, that was why I was smiling,” he says.

He is smiling now, too.

We watch three more clips.

The first takes us back to January 2023 and the first leg of a tetchy Carabao Cup semi-final against Southampton, whose Duje Caleta-Car is shown a red card late on. Murphy waves the Croatian centre-half on his way, receiving a dead-eyed stare in return. It is pantomime and it is poetry.

“I regret that, because it was a bit unprofessional,” Murphy says. “I was annoyed because he was going around kicking everyone, so when he got sent off, I was like, ‘See ya’.”

The second comes after a 2-0 home victory over Manchester United that April. Beforehand, Erik ten Hag had said Newcastle “delay” games, suggesting they deliberately keep the ball out of play. Come the match, Newcastle blitz them; as Murphy walks back to the tunnel, he taps an imaginary wristwatch.

“It was a bit of, ‘Still think we’re time-wasters?’,” Murphy says. “‘If you want a quick game, we’ll make it a quick game. Maybe you don’t want us to do it that quick, actually’.”

Howe’s streetwise team are now hard-running irritants, and Murphy’s on-pitch persona embodies them.

In 2021-22, the season of the Saudi-led takeover, Murphy starts 13 league games for Newcastle. In 2022-23, when they finish fourth, it’s 14. Last season, where he twice dislocated a shoulder, it is also 14. Howe trusts him to close games out, to go down when it’s necessary. His team-mates adore his willingness to work, and the bubbly side that lifts a training ground.

This season, Murphy has started 30 of the first 37 Premier League matches. He is still popular and still cheeky (he and Burn are engaged in a longstanding “feud” of dressing-room pranks), but there is a heftiness to him now. He is respected, a smiling assassin.

“People don’t see this side of him, but when you talk about standards, Jacob has become a hell of a leader,” Matt Ritchie, who left Newcastle for Portsmouth last summer, tells The Athletic. One little quirk: Ritchie has played alongside Josh, Jacob’s twin, at Fratton Park this season.

We call up Murphy’s page on the Premier League website to look at his statistics. Is this the player he has always been, except now unlocked?

“It’s the fruition of growth under Eddie,” he says. “How Eddie wants us to play resonates with my game. In his first couple of seasons, we were trying to find ourselves, so that required more defensive work and helping out. I was used more to see-out games, but even in training I was like, ‘I’m ready to start’.

“You keep going, building trust with the manager, and then more minutes start coming. People look at your goals and assists, but there are so many little details that make Newcastle. I’ve always loved doing that work because I know it’s for the betterment of the team.”

Murphy has become pivotal, but perceptions die hard.

In his own words, he is “not a flashy, dazzling winger”. He has played for 10 clubs, eight of them on loan: Norwich, Swindon Town, Southend United, Blackpool, Scunthorpe United, Colchester United, Coventry City, West Bromwich Albion, Wednesday and Newcastle.

For some, he is still the player who couldn’t make Wednesday’s bench against Stoke in the second division, and this brings us to another clip. It is Leicester City at home on December 14 last year. Newcastle had been beaten 4-2 away to Brentford in their previous game and a season is in danger of unravelling.

Murphy misses an early chance and the crowd at St James’ groans. When he opens the scoring in the 30th minute, he wheels towards the Gallowgate End clutching an ear and screaming “WHAT?”. In the end, Newcastle win 4-0, the first of nine straight victories in all competitions. Aside from three FA Cup fixtures, Murphy has started every game since.

“I’m usually good with my emotional control, but that was a moment of, ‘Guys, give me a break, I’m trying’,” he says. “It was callusing the mind, because when the ball came back to me — I can see it happening in slow-motion — I knew if I missed, the whole stadium would erupt. And then it was just relief. It was, ‘You’re on me, but you can’t get to me’.”

With Miguel Almiron now gone, Murphy, who has two years left on his contract, is the only natural right-winger in Newcastle’s squad. He has long been aware that they are seeking reinforcements at the position.

“I’ve proved I can contribute to a successful team,” he says. “Whatever happens in the summer in terms of incomings, I see that as more competition. It will be someone I can work off, share the load with. I won’t stop working hard to achieve success here.”

Jacob and Josh had grown up in London, near Wembley, kicking a ball around in the stadium’s shadow, wearing Newcastle kits (his family, who hail from the north east, were “crazy supporters”). Both joined Norwich, where they won the FA Youth Cup and graduated to the first team. Both played for England’s under-age sides.

“When you’re 18 and on an upward trajectory, you think it’s never going to stop,” Murphy says. “Then you meet the reality of football. I would never change my journey, because it taught me lessons I needed. It’s the same for Josh. He’s a fantastic brother and I’m so proud of him.”

Murphy’s story is beautiful and important, because it demonstrates the value of perseverance. The same applies to Burn.

Murphy and Dan Burn celebrate winning the Carabao Cup (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

“I love that Dan has got a similar background,” Murphy says. “It’s a powerful message for the younger generation; coming through, you don’t have to be the best player. Look at Dan now: he is just exceptionally good. People want to be dazzled with flair and tricky wingers and Rolls-Royce centre-backs, but sometimes putting in a good cross is better than a few stepovers.”

When Murphy joined Newcastle from Norwich for £12million ($16m) in 2017, it was a transfer to a stunted club. Now he and they are liberated, ‘flying along steady’, “chasing the next one”, with background, age, price all immaterial, as long as they are good enough. And, to repeat: this bunch of legends are categorically good enough.

“I’m a young 30,” Murphy says. “I still feel 22. There’s a stigma around being older in football, but until I’m slowing down, why can’t I be in the thoughts of England?”.

How about this: Murphy is the best of Newcastle. And he is just getting started.

(Top photo: Serena Taylor/Newcastle United)

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