In his first interview after realising a childhood dream, Jacob Murphy was visibly enthused at the prospect of walking out at St. James’ Park in black and white. “I’ve already started thinking about that day,” he smiled. “It’s going to be special for myself and my family. Wearing the Newcastle badge on my chest – I couldn’t think of anything better.”
Almost six months on, the 22-year-old reflects on that interview and what he really felt, deep down. “It was excitement,” he insists, “and then a bit of pressure, coming in to such a big club. But I was mainly just excited to get involved and play.”
There have been a few hurdles for Murphy to clear since his arrival at St. James’ Park. He found a starting berth hard to come by at first, but an injury to Christian Atsu afforded him an opportunity and a first real taste of the Premier League. “Well, now I can say I’ve found my feet,” says November’s FUN88 player of the month. “To start with, it was difficult. I was eager to just get in, play games and be a regular starter straight away. That didn’t go quite to plan, so it was a case of biding my time and working hard until the chance came.
“It’s difficult playing eight minutes, ten minutes or 12 minutes here and there, especially at this tempo when I wasn’t used to it. It was like, ‘wow’. But then it’s a lot different when you start a game – you can get into it, and I’m finding my rhythm now.”
The former Norwich City winger, whose parents both hail from the north east, felt a need to impress in those early cameos. “I was just dying to play. And then when I was coming on, I was putting pressure on myself, trying to do things that I don’t normally do because I was trying to catch the eye, get the fans off their seats and stuff,” he says. “Then I just thought, ‘wait – stick to what you know, and it’ll come good in time’.
“Once I started the games, from the Manchester United game, it took me ten or 15 minutes to settle into the match, but then things were coming off for me and I started finding more confidence. As each game’s gone on and I’ve played more minutes, I’ve relaxed into it.
“I like to think I’m a confident boy. But when I was coming on and not doing well, people weren’t really taking to me straight away, it was quite frustrating. It was a bit like, ‘am I ever going to play well?’ But I knew that in time it would come good. All I needed was a run of games to find my feet, and then I’d be cooking on gas.”
As 2018 begins England Under-21 international Murphy, quiet and polite, is relishing the benefits of moving him to a city with which he was familiar. Born in Wembley, he lived in London for 11 years, visiting family in Newcastle on school holidays. His aunts, uncles and cousins all live in Gateshead, and being “round the corner” is comforting. “I love being around my family,” he says. “Family is what keeps me going, and I’ve needed a lot of their support since coming up here, being by myself quite a lot. Now is a good time to build better relationships with them, get to see them more often and speak to them more often. It’s been good in that aspect. But it’s just mainly missing my brother.”
Murphy’s twin, Josh, is excelling on the wing back at Carrow Road, scoring eight in 25 appearances so far this term. It’s the first time they have been separated by such distance. “We speak most days. The thing he’ll say the most is – he’ll just say it randomly and come out with it – ‘Jake, I can’t believe it – you play in the Premier League mate’” Jacob laughs. “He says that all the time. He’s so happy for me. I think this is spurring him on to get to the level he knows he’s capable of.
“Growing up, people used to talk about twin telepathy. When we started playing in the first team at Norwich, all the older boys would be shouting ‘stop passing it to each other!’ But it always used to work – Josh would cut in, I’d start making runs inside then he’d pass it to me, and then I’d do the same. We’re quite similar – I knew his runs, he knew my runs and we’d know where each other were. It was a natural thing – dead easy.
“A good part of my move was giving him the freedom to spread his wings a bit more at Norwich. He needed game time, he’s got it and he’s doing what I was doing last season.”
The winger’s move to Tyneside in July separated him from the area where he had become a man. An advocate of the loan system, he spent six separate temporary spells away from Norfolk. Each added something to his make-up, but having a base at Norwich brought its own comforts. “I’ve been with all my pals, so I could get away with being as childish as I want. But here, I’ve had to be a little bit more mature. The lads still see the silly side and quite a lot of the staff see the silly side to the things that I do, but I’m getting older now, so I need to be more mature and professional. But I miss it, I miss the mischievous side of it,” he says, with a grin.
With more minutes, Murphy has begun to show glimpses of his talent, most evident in the run and cross which allowed Ayoze Pérez to snatch the winner at Stoke. His endeavours during a tricky spell for the team prior to Christmas rightly earned him plaudits, but he has a love-hate relationship with the platform on which many of those comments were sent his way. “I’m on and off Twitter – I delete it, re-download it and delete it again – but the majority are fantastic, they’re really supportive. You get the odd egghead, but then there’s people there to fight your corner and they’re the people I’ve got a lot of love for.”
It is a very modern conundrum for footballers navigating the minefield of social media. “I learned from my experience at Coventry that you shouldn’t read too much into what people say,” he says. “Twitter is a dangerous place – you get the good and the bad. But the way I see it is that if you don’t want to see all of the bad, then you can’t take in the good as well. It has to be like that, because you can’t just look through all the good comments and think, ‘yeah, that’s great’ and then when the bad comments come in, it’s like ‘why’s everyone coming at me?’
“There’s times I’ll have it, but most of the time I don’t. I flick on and off to see what’s going on. The negativity can eat you up. The way that the brain works is you notice all of the bad comments more than you notice the good comments. Why take in the hate when you don’t need that kind of thing?”
He still appreciates, but does not dwell on, the kind words that are sent his way though he is also conscious that his style, the way he presents himself on the pitch and plays the game, can exasperate. “The type of player I am, not everyone’s going to love me. I give the ball away and do some silly things from time to time, but I hope people enjoy the way I play,” offers Murphy. “It can frustrate some people and that’s just the type of player I am, but I know that my playing style gets results.
“I play off the cuff a lot, the element of surprise which catches most people off guard. If you’re playing pretty safe then you’re easy to play against. I like to play off the cuff, and just be a bit of a maverick from time to time.
“That’s what’s helped me get to where I am now. I score goals and create goals, but in that there will be times I give the ball away or do a sloppy pass and stuff like that. But people have got to be patient with that, because the next chance could be a good effort on goal, or I might score.”
That goal is yet to arrive, but there have been signs that it may not too far over the horizon for a player who feels there is plenty still to come from him. For Murphy, each time he looks down and sees the badge on his chest is a little pick-me-up, another moment of a dream fulfilled.
“It’s just exciting. In the black and white strip every time you look down you see the crest on your chest. It’s a proud feeling,” he smiles.
“It’s weird. I always used to do it with England. I’d look down and think ‘yeah, I play for England’. It was always a great feeling. Now, I do that here.”
