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By CRAIG HOPE Published: 23: 00 AEDT, 26 January 2025 | Updated: 23: 00 AEDT, 26 January 2025 9 View comments On the day Jacob Murphy signed for Newcastle, he joined in a rondo training drill with his new team-mates. As the ball slipped under his foot and skidded into the distance, Jonjo Shelvey quipped: ‘Ooh, look what £12million gets you these days’. Murphy laughed - he always has been a sound and popular character - but the comment, given how his first few seasons on Tyneside played out, was somewhat prophetic and not without ironic substance. I was there that sunny afternoon at the grand Carton House near Dublin, during a pre-season training camp under the charge of Rafa Benitez. It was a politically-charged time - it seldom was not with Benitez - and Murphy’s arrival from Norwich City was lost amid the background machinations. And lost was how he looked during that first campaign at St James’ Park. From 28 appearances there was just one goal and one assist. Seven years on, via loan spells at West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday, and Murphy is the supply line to the striker being talked about as the world’s best. Of Alexander Isak’s 19 goals this season, eight have been laid on by the winger. In fact, all but one of Murphy’s goal creations have been for the Swede. Andy Cole had Peter Beardsley, Isak has Murphy. That may seem a stretch, but in the season when Cole scored 34 Premier League goals in 1993/94 and, it was widely said, he would not have been the same player without his Geordie foil, Beardsley recorded eight assists. Murphy has matched that already in the Premier League this term. He is not Beardsley. In the 31 years since, Newcastle have not had a player of Beardsley’s cunning. They probably never will. But Murphy is Murphy, a jack-in-the-box who puts the ball in the box. There is something to be said in the modern game for a right-winger with a right foot who, because his wider skillset is perhaps limited, sticks to the traditional principles of getting it and giving it to others, without complication. Jacob Murphy (right) has established himself as Alexander Isak's (centre) main supply line Murphy has enjoyed a remarkable rise, with there being initial doubts over his £12m arrival Eddie Howe is likely to strengthen in the summer but Murphy will fight hard for his place That is not to do down his ability, it is more that Murphy knows what he is and what he is not. A player who plays to his strengths and accepts his weaknesses is a smart player indeed. With every game - he won his place in early December and has been there ever since - Murphy is stripping back on the things he cannot do and exploiting the things he can. Take Saturday at Southampton. His assist for Isak’s second goal could well be overlooked given what followed, the scorer’s devastating first touch taking him away from his pursuers and the finish so clean and clinical. But Murphy was the maker. To be so, he had to beat a man and then find the pass that Isak wanted and needed. To some, it may have looked overhit, so fast was the delivery over the surface. But Murphy knows what his team-mate can handle. Without that momentum on the ball, Isak would not have been able to escape those defenders. It was with good reason he turned and pointed to Murphy the moment the ball hit the net. Isak has done that a lot this season - be it from Murphy’s audacious back-heels that made mannequins of a gaggle of Ipswich defenders, or the balls he rolls seemingly so routinely into the goalmouth for the forward to finish with ease. Ask Alan Shearer about the value of a winger who gives you the ball where and when you want it. He once pinned David Ginola against a dressing-room wall so frustrated was he with the Frenchman overcomplicating things. Murphy still has his own tendency to frustrate, and that comes back to the limitations that mean he will never be Beardsley or Ginola. But with confidence comes consistency and with consistency of selection comes confidence. The 29-year-old is playing the best football of his career right now. Why, then, will Newcastle look to spend big on a right-winger this summer? Murphy’s form should not distract from the team’s need for improvement in that area. In more than three years of Saudi ownership, it is the only position in which the club have not signed a single player. It remains the most obvious domain for an immediate gain. But what Murphy has given Eddie Howe is a short-term solution and a longer-term comfort, knowing that competition in the position will be strong once reinforcement arrives. And if the new man does not do what Murphy does, maybe Isak will have him up against a wall one day. For now, it is opposition defences they are driving up the wall. The Murphy-Isak combo - 10 goals in tandem - is the most in the top-flight this season. Just look at what £12m gets you. Quite a lot, it turns out. Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group