TALKING ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
SITTING alone in a hotel room in a strange city far from his home and family, Jamie Murphy faced up to a crossroads in his career and in his life.
The former Motherwell attacker’s move to Sheffield United hadn’t gone to plan, with injuries preventing him from showing the impressive form that won him his move south
Scottish clubs, including the one he had recently left and where he had felt so much at home, were desperate to bring him back up the road. The prospect was a tempting one.
It was then that he decided that no, he would not quit.
He would stick it out, rededicate himself to meeting the physical demands of playing in England, and prove that he could cut it away from hearth and home.
Now, at 27 and preparing for life in the English Premier League with newly-promoted Brighton and Hove Albion, the Scotland squad man feels vindicated by his stubborn refusal to throw in the towel, as many before him had done.
“I look at some other players and they go down south, and then within a year or so they come back up the road,” Murphy said.
“I think I did it the right way, I never went too high, I never went straight to the Premier League.
“I don’t know if I would have been a success had I gone straight from Motherwell to the Premier League.
“I remember my first six months at Sheffield United, I just kept getting injured.
“Every couple of weeks I had a hamstring or a groin injury. I couldn’t handle dle the pace or the fitness levels thathat you needed to play in Leaguegue One.
“In Scotland, nd, we are a lot more technical hnical in the Premiership than League One.
“People think nk that Scottish football is hustle and bustle, but it iss not.
“In League e One it is a lot more to do with fitness. The first six monthsnths was horrible and it was a total al eye-opener. I was out injured and I was down there on my own, and I would miss three weeks of training and would be in the hotel all by myself. “You have to learn quickly and thankfully, I did. I turned it round and I went to the gym and worked hard every day. INNING promotion from “Going to the gym is the the Championship and in thing down south and I becoming a regular in a was in there a lot more than Premier League team doesn’t I ever was in Scotland. I was always automatically follow. determined to succeed. With the eye-popping riches “I had a couple of options now at Brighton’s disposal, to come back to Scotland. Murphy is steeling himself for the Motherwell and nex next task at hand: seeing off the Hibs were very ine inevitable new arrivals at The Am“interested in Amex Stadium. bringing me “It will be a huge challenge,” he back home, sai said. “When teams go up to the but I decided EP EPL they always make a couple of to stick it out. new signings. “The easy ““If I’m not in the squad, the option at the way I look at it is that it’s down to t timei m e me me, I’m not blaming anyone else. It’s up to me to do better, work har harder. I look at myself first. ““There’s always room to would have been to come back. I was at a crossroads but I am glad I stuck it out. If I had gone back to Scotland it would have felt like I had given up.
“I didn’t want to quit and I am delighted with that decision now as I am an English Premier League player.”
Wimprove and I’m sure I’ll have to improve to keep my place in the Premier League.
“We’ve got such great training facilities down there that it’s hard not to become a better player.”
Murphy watched the drama at Hampden unfold at a wedding on Saturday, stealing a glimpse of the action when he could on his phone. After being cut from Gordon Strachan’s original 29-man squad for the game, the spectacle has only made him doubly determined to force his way further into the national reckoning.
“It was a great game of football and you want to play in those kinds of games, so you use that as a bit of motivation,” he said.
“To be considered was great after not being in the last couple of squads.
“It was disappointing to ultimately miss out, but again, it’s motivation to get into the next one.”