Is it just me that's not bothered about Murphy?

[BushBlade]

In the ideal world he'd have wanted to stay and we'd have kept him.
It's not an ideal world.

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

To be fair or is it fare, he was player of the season in a squad of under performing shitters. Apart from one or two.

Maybe so, but it's not right trying to retrospectively claim he was useless to us just because he's been sold.

I've been sort of trying to justify the sale to myself in the same way SheffSteel does above: if we HAD* to sell one out of our three most sellable assets - Murphy, Adams, Done - then who would it be? Murphy would be the logical choice IMO.

(*And we do have to trim the squad, generate funds, restructure the squad, I doubt anyone would deny.)

Like I said, no point crying over spilt milk. Che stepped up, the future beckons.
*Awaits spending spree using the Murphy windfall*

 

[Fulwood Blade]

We're all hoping that Wallace will be 'the one' to boss midfield, but given his injury record can we afford to wait and see whether he can keep it together and get up to full fitness for a whole season?

I'm not so sure, big gamble for me in an important area...

the 64,000 dollar question.

He has the talent - think that is a given.
Does he have the fitness? - as a club we have to gently push him in that direction and see. It is interesting that Adkins uses him as a 30 minute player at present in league games. Football has to be about a 14 man game these days and would like to see Wallace start for 60 and Baxter play 30 minutes and push further up the field. Think what we have seen is Wallace will put himself about, Baxter made one block tackle during yesterdays game and didn't look at all comfortable doing it - bit of a worry with only 2 in the middle and Adams being encouraged to push forward.
I wonder if Adkins plan is to use Done (when fit/ready) and Adams out wide which means we have to be rock solid in centre mid.

At least now we can discuss positive improvements instead of some of the complete unknowns we had last season.

UTB

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

I've been sort of trying to justify the sale to myself in the same way SheffSteel does above:

We had to sell Murphy because he made it clear he wanted to leave. Isn't that all there is to it? I can't see that it really needs justifying beyond that.

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

We had to sell Murphy because he made it clear he wanted to leave. Isn't that all there is to it? I can't see that it really needs justifying beyond that.

No, it's not all there is to it. Brighton offered a price we were willing to accept; the club saw it as being in their best interests to sell, all things considered. There wasn't a compulsion to sell.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Ok.

Let's not kid ourselves. Jamie Murphy is a big loss. If he had stayed, I have no doubt that he would have been a valuable player in what I hope will be a push for promotion. He is (Fact) a £2m player and we don't have any of those on the books at this time.

But he has moved on and I wish him well. Truth is, it might turn out to be good business for all parties as NA may now have some extra financial resource to improve in areas he wants to.

UTB

 

[Bladeloyal]

I'm bothered. One of the best ways of getting out of League One is to have in your side players who are Championship standard and Murphy is. Yes, he could be frustrating and go missing from time to time and occasionally he could look a bit "nesh" - an accusation that was levelled at Alan Woodward more than once during his career - but he was a genuinely creative winger, good goalscorer and with plenty of assists to his credit.

The opposition wouldn't be able to "double up" on him if they had other genuine threats to deal with and Murphy would have relished Sammon, Sharp and Adams stepping up to the plate like they did yesterday and it would have taken some of the burden off him.

It's done now, anyway. Let's just hope Adams doesn't miss any of the coming games with "flu".

Alan Woodward had thighs like a prop forward ,he wasn't nesh he was class ,che has the same thigh muscles he will be a star as was sir Alan of Woodward ,he won't be hear long so enjoy

 

[BushBlade]

My memory's not what it was but didn't Warnock sell Bent and use to money to bring in Brown amongst others? And didn't Harry sell Beagrie to raise funds for players?

Our views have been distorted by several years of poor to average management and, pre-Prince, poor stewardship of the club. It's become our nature to assume the worst will happen, because for some time now, it usually has.

 

[Silent Blade]

Alan Woodward had thighs like a prop forward ,he wasn't nesh he was class ,che has the same thigh muscles he will be a star as was sir Alan of Woodward ,he won't be hear long so enjoy

Woody is one of my two biggest heroes but he did have a weakness. There were occasions when he pulled out of challenges that annoyed some Blades fans. Tom Fenoughty was sat next to me and my dad in the BLUT when we beat L**ds 3-0 in August 1971. Early in the game my dad shouted at Woody for pulling out of a challenge. Tom Fenoughty told my dad that having played with Woody for some years, the coaches have always tried to tell Woody that his problem has always been his reluctance to go into challenges.

An example in the below video is when he backed off from a Doyle challenge at 0.14 secs


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Harry_Daft.jpg/220px-Harry_Daft.jpg

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

Woody not looking his best there, Silent.

It's a wonder he could get up and down the wing at all wearing that gear.

 

[silverfox]

How anyone can compare Woody in any way with who we have seen over the last few years is beyond me!

Sorry!

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

No, it's not all there is to it. Brighton offered a price we were willing to accept; the club saw it as being in their best interests to sell, all things considered. There wasn't a compulsion to sell.

As posted elsewhere. This makes it clear the strength of his desire to leave and join Brighton. If you think that we could (or even should) keep hold of a player who expresses these views then we disagree:

From Brighton local rag...

Jamie Murphy wants to use his move to Albion as a springboard to a Scotland call-up.

The Glaswegian winger signed from Sheffield United played under ex-Seagulls manager Mark McGhee at Motherwell and for Scotland under-21.

McGhee, now No.2 to Scotland boss Gordon Strachan, still lives in Brighton and Murphy hopes to catch his eye again following his £1.5 million switch from the Blades on a four-year deal.

The 25-year-old said: "He (McGhee) was the first one that gave me a real chance in the first team, a run of games, playing games in Europe. He was big for me at the time.

"If you play well enough it's always going to get talked about, so it's up to me.

"It's one of the big reasons I felt like making the move was a good thing. I want to try to get in my national team, I want to give everything I've got to try and do that."

Murphy, signed too late to feature at Fulham tomorrow, will be watching his new team-mates in the flesh at Craven Cottage after seeing their opening 1-0 win against Nottingham Forest last week on TV.

He said: "They played very well. It was a great performance from the rest of the boys and a deserved win as well, a good start to the season. Hopefully now we can keep it going."

 

[Silent Blade]

Woody is one of my two biggest heroes but he did have a weakness. There were occasions when he pulled out of challenges that annoyed some Blades fans. Tom Fenoughty was sat next to me and my dad in the BLUT when we beat L**ds 3-0 in August 1971. Early in the game my dad shouted at Woody for pulling out of a challenge. Tom Fenoughty told my dad that having played with Woody for some years, the coaches have always tried to tell Woody that his problem has always been his reluctance to go into challenges.

An example in the below video is when he backed off from a Doyle challenge at 0.14 secs


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Harry_Daft.jpg/220px-Harry_Daft.jpg

Dont know what happened there! Video is below.

0.14 secs

 

[Woodwardfan]

Far too weak and too many games passed him by for me. He was great on his day but I don't think you can rely on him to get us out of the league. I would much rather have Adams in that position and if the money is used to strengthen other areas then it's a good deal for the club.

Let nobody suggest we would not be better off with Murphy, but this is a squad game and he is not that hard to replace if we spend his transfer fee well.. In fact his ratio of one goal per 5 games can be bettered and as the OP suggests he did little else far too often.

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

As posted elsewhere. This makes it clear the strength of his desire to leave and join Brighton. If you think that we could (or even should) keep hold of a player who expresses these views then we disagree:

"It's one of the big reasons I felt like making the move was a good thing. I want to try to get in my national team, I want to give everything I've got to try and do that."

I do think you're choosing to look at this in a particularly black & white way WHF so, yes, I suppose we do disagree on this one. I stand by what I said above.

No big deal. It's all water under the bridge anyway - Jamie's gone; Che's the future.
(Here's to that Murphy money being used wisely now! Could be an exciting couple of weeks...)

 

[Woodwardfan]

Woody is one of my two biggest heroes but he did have a weakness. There were occasions when he pulled out of challenges that annoyed some Blades fans. Tom Fenoughty was sat next to me and my dad in the BLUT when we beat L**ds 3-0 in August 1971. Early in the game my dad shouted at Woody for pulling out of a challenge. Tom Fenoughty told my dad that having played with Woody for some years, the coaches have always tried to tell Woody that his problem has always been his reluctance to go into challenges.

An example in the below video is when he backed off from a Doyle challenge at 0.14 secs


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Harry_Daft.jpg/220px-Harry_Daft.jpg

If you have to criticise a player for his minor weaknesses instead of looking at his major strengths then it means your team is almost perfect IMO.

 

[Silent Blade]

If you have to criticise a player for his minor weaknesses instead of looking at his major strengths then it means your team is almost perfect IMO.

Yeah. I had never gave Woody any stick when watching him as I was too young to understand the importance of going into a committed challenge and I have always loved his skills, crosses, corners and goals. When my dad (he loved Woody too) or any older supporters were groaning at Woodward on some occasions I would ask my dad "why?". His usual response would be "he is too frightened to challenge that". TC had his critics too, he gets accused of being too lazy at times. I was just telling twofootedtackle that Shalalalafenoughty wasnt wrong in saying that Woody could be "nesh" at times. Would you agree too?

 

[Woodwardfan]

Yeah. I had never gave Woody any stick when watching him as I was too young to understand the importance of going into a committed challenge and I have always loved his skills, crosses, corners and goals. When my dad (he loved Woody too) or any older supporters were groaning at Woodward on some occasions I would ask my dad "why?". His usual response would be "he is too frightened to challenge that". TC had his critics too, he gets accused of being too lazy at times. I was just telling twofootedtackle that Shalalalafenoughty wasnt wrong in saying that Woody could be "nesh" at times. Would you agree too?

It's all about being a team game. Each and every player has a role and complement each other. Each supporter has a view which encapsulates his/her own personality. Sometimes that fan's view can be specific to that fan's personality.

Let's just say that any team relies on the real creators of assists and goals scored and they are far more difficult to find AND KEEP than all the rest. It's all about blend of the whole team of 11 players but if the best player can't "put a foot in" so what? Currie couldn't, Edwards couldn't either, neither could Deane and Agana, so what?

 

[Silent Blade]

It's all about being a team game. Each and every player has a role and complement each other. Each supporter has a view which encapsulates his/her own personality. Sometimes that fan's view can be specific to that fan's personality.

Let's just say that any team relies on the real creators of assists and goals scored and they are far more difficult to find AND KEEP than all the rest. It's all about blend of the whole team of 11 players but if the best player can't "put a foot in" so what? Currie couldn't, Edwards couldn't either, neither could Deane and Agana, so what?

TC couldnt "put a foot in"?


TC was very strong in challenging for the ball. He was also strong at shielding the ball because he had a strong backside. He got sent off twice for late tackles (v Peterborough i(n Watney Cup) and v Everton (March 1973)) also he badly injured Micky Way of Oxford in Nov 1970 that had Ron Atkinson "looking" to kick TC (he failed as TC was too quick for him. Before we signed Hockey in January 1971, he was our midfield ballwinner (Frank Barlow wasnt a strong player) so the signing of Hockey was the reason for TC to do more creative things in the middle

 

[BushBlade]

How anyone can compare Woody in any way with who we have seen over the last few years is beyond me!

Sorry!

I wouldn't even compare him with Colin Morris. Good player though and sad to see him go.

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

I wouldn't want to overstate it but there was certainly a perception that Woodward didn't go full-blooded into 50-50 tackles and he used to get a bit of stick from an element of the crowd over it. It didn't detract from his overall effectiveness - obviously - and most supporters just shrugged their shoulders and accepted that that was the way it was.

For what it's worth, that would be my view of Murphy. He might not be the bravest but I'd rather he was still with us. But he isn't and what's done is done.

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

TC couldnt "put a foot in"?


TC was very strong in challenging for the ball. He was also strong at shielding the ball because he had a strong backside. He got sent off twice for late tackles (v Peterborough i(n Watney Cup) and v Everton (March 1973)) also he badly injured Micky Way of Oxford in Nov 1970 that had Ron Atkinson "looking" to kick TC (he failed as TC was too quick for him. Before we signed Hockey in January 1971, he was our midfield ballwinner (Frank Barlow wasnt a strong player) so the signing of Hockey was the reason for TC to do more creative things in the middle

I agree.

I posted this a while back on another thread involving memories of Currie:

"A tackle on Tommy Smith, probably in the home game against Liverpool in October 1974 which we won 1-0. Liverpool had a corner at the Kop end and it was partially cleared, the ball kicked up in the air and dropping to Smith who was coming in at a rate of knots about thirty yards out, eye on the ball and intending to meet it on the volley. As usual, Smith had been dishing it out in his usual hard-man style and TC had obviously had enough. He ran out towards Smith but instead of just charging the shot down, he flew in two-footed and took him out about knee-high. Smith went down in agony and all the Liverpool players played hell up with TC, Keegan prominent among them. I think Currie was booked. He was a fantastic, creative player but he had a hard side to him, a characteristic I believe he shared with Jimmy Hagan."

 

[Woodwardfan]

TC couldnt "put a foot in"?


TC was very strong in challenging for the ball. He was also strong at shielding the ball because he had a strong backside. He got sent off twice for late tackles (v Peterborough i(n Watney Cup) and v Everton (March 1973)) also he badly injured Micky Way of Oxford in Nov 1970 that had Ron Atkinson "looking" to kick TC (he failed as TC was too quick for him. Before we signed Hockey in January 1971, he was our midfield ballwinner (Frank Barlow wasnt a strong player) so the signing of Hockey was the reason for TC to do more creative things in the middle

Sorry Silent, Currie did not tackle his weight. Sendings off and bad tackles are not a measure of "tackling one's weight". I watched him almost every game he played for us. He was only interested when he had the ball.

 

[blade too long]

Murphy should thank us for taking a raw youngster of little use and making him half decent

we are not reliant on any one player , never have been

even brian deane would admit without his team mates service hed be nothing


I miss Stephen Quinn far more by comparison , he gave more in EVERY game

 

[Cyprus Blade]

.in Clough's system we relied too much on Murphy

I agree -the outball to Murphy when JCR had gone and the Beard was at CH became so predictable our attack was blunted. The opposition knew - stop Murphy and you stop United - leading to him being double marked. That lack of tactical variation cost us dear I think. The shape and style under Adkins looks different as we look to get it forward and move the ball quicker and Adams and the return of Done may well be better suited to this style of play. Its certainly better to watch,but I am in no doubt that Murphy going is a loss to the squad.

Not sure the defence can play higher up the pitch with Collins

Clough wanted the defence to play a higher line and Collins disagreed I seem to recall from last season - one of the bones of contention. I'm not sure McEveley would be too comfortable with a higher line either. I'd like to see another CH come in who has better pace and distribution which would allow us to push up 10 yards. On the performance re Chesterfield Edgar is a starting CH. Collins a back-up CH for me. Young Terry is crocked I fear. Two clean sheets in the last two matches was very nice though. I wouldn't be surprised at us going 3-5-2 for parts of some games though.

Midfield is still a problem - Basham is not as effective there as he was in defence so far for me (less time) and his range and accuracy of passing under pressure still needs work. Wallace could be an answer, but we are a long way off seeing the best of him yet (if we ever do -I hope we do). Scougall for me isn't robust enough for this division to be anything other than an impact player when the opposition are tiring. Woolford is much more robust but has tended to be wasteful with possession in the games I have seen, but its still early days. Reed is still young and still small. Baxter is still the best passer in the side but can't tackle and as a result doesn't close the opposition down enough and contributes little defensively. His fitness has improved and his passing is crisper and sharper this season but he still lacks an engine for 90mins. Baxter has a value as an impact player for me if we are pressing a game. Seems like he is ahead of Reed and Wallace in the pecking order at the moment but I can see that changing.

 

[LSF]

Sorry Silent, Currie did not tackle his weight. Sendings off and bad tackles are not a measure of "tackling one's weight". I watched him almost every game he played for us. He was only interested when he had the ball.

Ahh well, this is an issue of subjectivity, memory and opinion and for what its worth, I'm with Silent here.

Woody in his fledgling days was definitely on the butt end of some of the Lane crowd for his reluctance to enter into a 50/50 with his marker and defenders picked up on this. Emlyn Hughes in particular scared Woody shitless in a game at Bramall Lane around '67 (in his Blackpool days). Woody admitted as much to me in a more sanguine moment. However, this trait left him (or became less apparent) as his game developed and age and experience came on board. His overall talents way overshadowed this flaw.

As for TC, he more than tackled his weight, he could look after himself with any of the known hardmen of the day and quite how he didn't 'tackle his weight' is something I'd argue against most strongly. His strength of tackle was grossly underestimated in my opinion.

 

[Silent Blade]

Sorry Silent, Currie did not tackle his weight. Sendings off and bad tackles are not a measure of "tackling one's weight". I watched him almost every game he played for us. He was only interested when he had the ball.

You may have watched every game TC played in but the likes of me, Shalalalafenoughty and LSF remember more of TC's strengths!

 

[Woodwardfan]

Ahh well, this is an issue of subjectivity, memory and opinion and for what its worth, I'm with Silent here.

Woody in his fledgling days was definitely on the butt end of some of the Lane crowd for his reluctance to enter into a 50/50 with his marker and defenders picked up on this. Emlyn Hughes in particular scared Woody shitless in a game at Bramall Lane around '67 (in his Blackpool days). Woody admitted as much to me in a more sanguine moment. However, this trait left him (or became less apparent) as his game developed and age and experience came on board. His overall talents way overshadowed this flaw.

As for TC, he more than tackled his weight, he could look after himself with any of the known hardmen of the day and quite how he didn't 'tackle his weight' is something I'd argue against most strongly. His strength of tackle was grossly underestimated in my opinion.

You may have watched every game TC played in but the likes of me, Shalalalafenoughty and LSF remember more of TC's strengths!

I always respect other peoples' opinions.

Maybe a compromise would be " he rarely put a tackle in but when he did it was with his full weight". Honestly I never ever thought about Currie as a ball-winner, far from it. At the same time I loved him as a player, it's just that I had this lifetime companion sat next to me every game telling me what a lazy sod he was.and she can spot one a mile off

 

[Silent Blade]

I always respect other peoples' opinions.

Maybe a compromise would be " he rarely put a tackle in but when he did it was with his full weight". Honestly I never ever thought about Currie as a ball-winner, far from it. At the same time I loved him as a player, it's just that I had this lifetime companion sat next to me every game telling me what a lazy sod he was.and she can spot one a mile off

TC was our only midfield ballwinner before we signed Hockey. Alf Ramsey liked him because not that only he had flair but he had aggression too

 

[JohnDenver]

One point on Murphy. His performance vs Spurs in the League Cup semi ranks right in the top drawer of creative exhibitions given by a United midfielder in my years watching (Bassett onwards).

Glynn Hodges, Michael Tonge, Michael Brown, and perhaps Vass Borkbokis. They've all put in similarly classy performances in big games. But how many others have there been?

I'm struggling to put a Whitehouse, Devlin, Ndlovu or a Gillespie performance up there on the basis of flair and match importance.