The 25 year old left Sheffield United for pastures new yesterday, joining Brighton & Hove Albion and could make his Seagulls debut today at Fulham in the Championship. He signed for the AMEX club for an undisclosed fee but contrary to the figure we gave out yesterday it has become apparent that the fee is in fact somewhere around the £1,750,000 mark, still not a bad return on a player who cost around £300,000 two years ago from Motherwell.
Upon his signing in January 2013 then boss Danny Wilson told sufc.co.uk; "We are absolutely delighted to have secured a deal to bring Jamie to Sheffield United because the lad is a real talent. He is quick, strong on the ball and a good runner in possession. He will put defenders on the back foot and will offer us great versatility in forward positions." Maybe he wasn't a bad judge of character after all!
In the summer, the Blades had reportedly seen interest for the winger from both Leeds United and Brighton, and perhaps with other clubs interested - all were rebuffed. However the Sheffield Star had revealed that had Nigel Adkins former predecessor Nigel Clough still been at the helm, Murphy would have been sold off to the highest bidder. With the quick progress of Che Adams following his move from non-league it was believed that the cash earned from the sale would go into investing more into players outside of the Football League.
Sheffield United’s managing director Mal Brannigan said: “The club had received several offers over the past month and had rejected them all in the interests of retaining the player’s services. Once Jamie expressed a strong desire to talk with Brighton and made his wishes known to both the board and the manager, the club reluctantly accepted Brighton’s offer for Jamie’s registration.”
Murphy, who made over 100 appearances with the Blades instigated that the reason for the move was; “One of the big reasons I felt like making the move (is because) I want to try to get in my national team.”
We would like to wish him well with his new club.
Twitter: @blades_mad1889