Latest news with #JacobMurphy
BBC News
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Two Newcastle players in Williams' underrated XI of the season
As the dust settles on this Premier League campaign, we asked former England international Fara Williams for her underrated XI for the selected two players who have represented Newcastle this BurnThere are players around Dan Burn in the Newcastle squad who are more glamourous and will be spoken about far more than he is. But, there are very few, if any, that the fans love more. I think he gets close to a best Premier League XI this season which seems crazy given when many would not have believed he would still even be at the club at this stage in their knows his role and place in Eddie Howe's side perfectly and is one of the most consistent and committed performers in the league. He knows his limitations as well so adjusts position to minimise the risk of him being run at with space behind him. His goal in the Carabao Cup final will be one of the defining moments of this English football season for Murphy I heard early on this season Newcastle fans on the radio saying Murphy is a player that's not good enough to play in this team if they are to achieve big things.A player of his ability can go one way or the other - they can get found out and struggle to play for the team again or they really lift their levels and show that they have the capabilities to step up into the has certainly been able to do that and the relationship he's got with Alexander Isak has been one of the reasons why Newcastle have gone on the run that secured a Champions League spot. His assist record this year has been seriously impressive and he's added some key goals to that as Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nat Hayward
The Hindu
25-05-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Newcastle secures Champions League spot despite loss to Everton in season finale, Brighton thrashes Spurs
Newcastle United squeezed into the Champions League places despite losing 1-0 to Everton at home in its final game of the Premier League season on Sunday, thanks to Manchester United's 2-0 home win over Aston Villa. The Magpies, who ended a 70-year domestic trophy drought by beating Liverpool to win the League Cup earlier in the season, ended up in fifth place on 66 points, edging out Villa on goal difference. The final whistle led to a nervous wait at St. James's Park as the game continued at Old Trafford, with confirmation of Villa's defeat bringing a roar of joy and relief as the Champions League hymn was played to celebrate Newcastle's return to Europe's premier competition. Newcastle dominated throughout but was undone by poor finishing and sloppy passing. Its struggles were encapsulated in a 38th-minute tongue-lashing administered by defender Fabian Schar to team mate Jacob Murphy, who dawdled across the midfield before carelessly giving away the ball. READ | Liverpool ends victorious season with 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace The home side had its chances but its final ball into the box was often poor, and any efforts it did manage to get on goal were comfortably dealt with by Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal. Newcastle was eventually punished for giving away the ball once too often in the centre of the pitch in the 65th minute, with Everton's Vitaliy Mykolenko crossing for Carlos Alcaraz to score with a brilliant header. The home side poured forward late in the second half as it sought to salvage some pride with an equaliser, with Bruno Guimares sending a stoppage-time effort that might have saved its blushes whistling past the top corner. Other than that, Everton was in no mood to accommodate it and defended doggedly to the bitter end, finishing its season in 13th place on 48 points. Newcastle 4-1 Tottenham Hotspur Brighton & Hove Albion left Tottenham Hotspur with a hangover by thrashing the Europa League winner 4-1 away but missed out on a European place after finishing eighth in the standings. Spurs were in celebratory mood following their triumph against Manchester United in Bilbao in midweek and took the lead through a Dominic Solanke penalty after 17 minutes following a clumsy foul on Mathys Tel by Mats Wieffer. However, Brighton pushed for an equaliser and got it six minutes after the break through Jack Hinshelwood, who rifled the ball into the roof of the net, and he grabbed its second with a clever back-heel in the 64th following another corner. Matt O'Riley then scored from the spot after Diego Gomez was fouled by Yves Bissouma, and Gomez netted a stunning fourth in added time for the visitor when he expertly curled the ball into the far top corner from just outside the area. The defeat was the 22nd of a dreadful Premier League season for Spurs, which piled the pressure on their Australian manager Ange Postecoglou and led to speculation that he faced the sack. Tottenham ended the campaign in 17th place, its lowest league finish in 21 years, with 38 points being the club's worst ever Premier League tally. However, on Sunday the home fans were more focused on celebrating their European success. The players came back out after the game for a lap of the pitch with the Europa League, Spurs' first silverware since 2008 and their first European trophy for 41 years. Whether that is enough to extend Postecoglou's reign remains to be seen.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
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 Newcastle United, a club newly transformed from perennial losers into ice-cold winners. Advertisement Amid stiff competition, Murphy has a strong claim for Newcastle's 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 virtue of winning the Carabao Cup in March, the club's first domestic trophy for 70 years, he and his team-mates automatically become history boys. Yet winning has meant forward propulsion. Twelfth in December, they are now one game away from qualifying for the 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 England squad which is announced this week. At the age of 30, the notion of a full call-up feels like sweetest logic. Like Dan Burn, who won his first cap in those heady days post-Wembley, his career has been mazy, but he has risen within Newcastle's headlong rise. '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 (of Tottenham Hotspur) is the only other right-footed right-winger and it brings a whole different dynamic. 'There's Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins 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.' Advertisement How about this: Murphy is categorically good enough for Eddie Howe's side, who he and Burn supported as kids. This is a battle he has had to fight, both before Newcastle's takeover and since, amid a rush to cast aside less glitzy players. This season represents the ultimate riposte but, in any case, he 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 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 Isak meeting it. And 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 and 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, again in the League 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.' Advertisement Doubly impressive was the way a great release did not bring a giant exhalation; Newcastle went again. Beat Everton at St James' Park on Sunday and they will return to the Champions League for the second time in three years, 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 UEFA Conference League by virtue of their trophy, Newcastle have powered on towards the Champions League. '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?' 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 it takes them to the San Siro, home of AC Milan. The stadium is throbbing. As the competition's theme music blares out, 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.' Chills. After a long 20 year wait. Newcastle hear the #UCL anthem for the first time in their return to the competition. #ACMNEW — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 19, 2023 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. Advertisement '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 at Sheffield 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 at Wembley in 2023, The Athletic invited family members to write personal letters to players and Maxine, his mum, said: 'The normal Murphy way of handling success or anything good that happens is to say: 'Well that's just the start'.' Advertisement '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',' Murphy 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 when Duje Caleta-Car is shown a red card late on. Murphy waves the 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. Newcastle blitz them; as Murphy walks back to the tunnel, he taps an imaginary wristwatch. This team. ❤️❤️ 👀⌚️ @JacobMurphy95 — Newcastle United (@NUFC) April 2, 2023 '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 were hard-running irritants and Murphy's on-pitch persona embodies them. In 2021-22, the season of Newcastle's Saudi-led takeover, Murphy starts 13 league games. In 2022-23, when they finish fourth, it is 14. Last season, when he twice dislocates a shoulder, it is 14. Howe trusts him to close games out, to go down when necessary. His team-mates adore his willingness to work, the bubbly side that lifts a training ground. Advertisement This season Murphy has started 30 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 the bench against Stoke in the Championship and this brings us to the other clip. It is Leicester City at home on December 14 last year. Newcastle had lost 4-2 at Brentford in their previous game and a season is in danger of unravelling. Advertisement Murphy misses an early chance and 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 on Newcastle's books. He has long been aware they are seeking reinforcements. '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 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 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,' he 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. '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.' Advertisement When Murphy joined Newcastle from Norwich for £12million ($16m) in 2017, it was 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.
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Pick your Newcastle player of the season
We asked our Newcastle fan contributor for their four candidates for player of the season and you can now select your top one. Dan BurnThis season saw us lose Sven Botman at centre-back and we just... haven't really noticed. That's because Big Dan Burn easily slipped into this place and has held his line expertly. Not to mention the opening goal in the Carabao Cup final, helping us secure our first domestic cup in 70 MurphyWe were so worried in January that we were going to be left totally lost on the right-hand side of attack. Enter Murphy who has gone on to provide eight Premier League goals and 12 assists to date. All with a massive grin on his TonaliMidfield maestro from Milano. This season has seen us unlock this player who somehow seems to get better and better each game. He has slotted into this holding midfielder/attacking hybrid role with ease, pushing play up the pitch and being instrumental in crucial IsakWe cannot ignore the goal contribution and skill of the ice cold Alexander Isak this season. For a player who isn't getting the service he wants, he still has an incredible 23 Premier League goals and the winning goal at the Carabao Cup final. There is so much more to come from him - which is such an exciting your 2024-25 Newcastle player of the season from our shortlist hereAnd tell us why you're picking who you are, or why you'd have gone for another player not on the list, here Find more from Charlotte Robson at the True Faith: Newcastle United Podcast, external
New York Times
12-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Newcastle are tuned in, focused, strong – this is an elite team at work
Sandro Tonali is closing in on Romeo Lavia as if he wishes him harm. Newcastle United's Italian midfielder is scorching forward at a murderous pace, his intent so malicious that Lavia hesitates — and that hesitation is enough. Tonali has the ball now, it is given swiftly to Bruno Guimaraes, who spreads it wide to the right, where Jacob Murphy does what Jacob Murphy does, spinning an exquisite cross back towards the far post for Tonali to bury it. Advertisement Thank goodness, St James' Park has not succumbed to the horror of goal music, but if it did, the Champions League theme would have been the only choice, although surely it will be ringing out there again soon. Not that anybody would have noticed amid the bedlam and the throb of Newcastle's grand, old stadium. Despite the ungodly 12pm kick-off time against Chelsea on Sunday, it is one of those force-of-nature occasions when the ground's foundations shake. Biggest game of the season? Tonali's second-minute opener demonstrates neatly what Eddie Howe's team make of that notion, a standard of endeavour they set early and rarely deviated from, even if it became more awkward than it should have been against Chelsea's 10 men until Bruno Guimaraes nabbed a late second. Yet on a glorious spring day, the 2-0 scoreline has its own story to tell, and it says 'job done'. Quite firmly. Newcastle are tuned in, focused, strong. This is how they have been this season in the truly big moments: think Arsenal home and away in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup; think Liverpool at Wembley in the final. Over decades, no club has done yearning and fear and angst better than Newcastle — but this lot reject it, if not quite nervelessly, then steadfastly enough to pick their way through any agitation. 'We've become used to the big games,' Howe tells reporters afterwards. 'I don't think that was the case when we first arrived (he was appointed in November 2021) and we slowly built our league position. But having two cup finals, the Champions League experience (last season), has definitely helped us in that respect. Now there's a much better reaction to the bigger occasions, and no bigger than today. The pressure on us was huge, with the expectation, the crowd.' In the past, this pressure would have consumed them. Newcastle would have withered. But now? They revel in it. Advertisement 'We love this type of game,' Guimaraes, the captain, tells The Athletic. 'We have a lot of big players here, so it's a good one for us. My message for the boys (beforehand) was, 'Of course we won the cup. It was massive for us, but it's not enough'. I told them, 'We want more. We want to play Champions League next season'. We have to dream big.' To put that another way, Newcastle have become an elite team. They are not yet an elite club — there is work to be done still on infrastructure, sponsorship and squad depth — but for more than half a season they have been playing at the highest level imaginable, earning a first domestic trophy for 70 years and putting a run of form together that has seen them leap from 12th to third in the Premier League. Only new champions Liverpool have won more league matches in that spell. Three more points from Newcastle's final two fixtures — away to Arsenal, and at home against Everton — should be enough for a second appearance in three years among Europe's elite. The Champions League might begin to feel like home. Their head coach counsels caution, though. 'Lots of twists and turns could be around the corner,' Howe says. 'We can't sit back. We have to drive forward. We're not taking anything for granted.' That attitude guides his team. Their urgency is no coincidence. Any concerns that a noon kick-off might hamper the atmosphere — Newcastle offered their fans at St James' a free drink to compensate for having to leave their beds so early on a Sunday morning — were blown away in a fury of noise and resolve. 'We had some statistics about Chelsea and how they start a bit slow and we tried to score first,' Guimaraes says. 'I said to the guys that apart from the cup final, this is the most important game. From the beginning, our mentality for this game is that it is a final.' Advertisement And so there was Tonali harrying and hassling from the off. 'It was an amazing piece of play from Sandro,' Howe says of that opening goal. 'His energy and his legs have been a key part of our game. He has used it mainly for defensive work since he's changed his position but he's still got this natural ability to follow the play and he makes a lot of very good forward runs. He regained the ball and is then on the end of another unbelievable Jacob cross. It was a great moment for us.' It should lead to more, but chances are not taken and Nicolas Jackson's witless red card for aiming an elbow at Sven Botman — brought back into the team as a third central defender — in the 35th minute actually provides Chelsea with some freedom. Newcastle's rhythm is disrupted but Nick Pope makes what Howe describes as 'two magnificent saves' and Dan Burn heads and clears everything else, looking every inch (and there are many of them) the England international. Then, at the end, that added security from Guimaraes, whose shot deflects off Malo Gusto and loops in. Tonali got things going by closing down and the rest of them close it out. This is what great sides do, and Newcastle have become one. Against the traditional 'Big Six', the evidence is irrefutable; at St James' this season, they have played eight matches with those teams in all competitions, winning six and drawing two, finding the best of themselves when it is most needed. They find a way and that path is leading them back to the Champions League. 'The future is bright for this club,' Guimaraes says. But the present is pretty special, too. Additional reporting: Chris Waugh
