Luke Murphy: I couldn’t turn Leeds United down - YEP 2/7/13

Midfielder Luke Murphy says he couldn’t have lived with himself if he hadn’t joined Leeds United. Leon Wobschall spoke to the £1m man.
£1m man Luke Murphy admits that he would not have been able to live with himself had he spurned the advances of Leeds United.
The 23-year-old midfielder, whose skills were nurtured at the nearest thing you can get to a school of footballing science in England at Crewe Alexandra, had his pick of three clubs – who all beat a path to south Cheshire to land the latest talent off the Railwaymen’s prolific Academy-reared production line.
Wolves, then Blackburn Rovers and finally Leeds saw bids of around £1m accepted, with the Whites showing their hand in the nick of time – just when it seemed that Murphy was about to head to Ewood Park for good.
Murphy met manager Brian McDermott, who revealed his interest in him to his agent six to eight weeks ago, on Sunday – and his decision was soon made, with the Alsager-born play-maker staying at Leeds overnight before being whisked up to Thorp Arch yesterday morning for a medical ahead of completing his move.
The speed of developments, given a hitherto tardy summer of recruitment at Elland Road, was somewhat breakneck, even bewildering.
The seven-figure transfer represented a seismic development not just for Murphy, but his new club and Whites fans, now busy reflecting on a momentous chain of events that most would not have dared envisage just a few days ago.
Arriving hand in hand with a shift in transfer policy is a new boardroom structure.
And if the club’s new chairman Salah Nooruddin and new managing director David Haigh, now responsible for day-to-day running of United after chief executive officer Shaun Harvey stepped down – although he remains a director – wanted to make a declaration of intent to Whites supporters, Murphy was plainly it.
On his path to Leeds – via stop-offs at Wolves and Blackburn, Murphy said: “It was a hard decision. But once I thought about it in my head, I knew that if I turned down Leeds United, it would be a massive regret in my life. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.
“Leeds are up there with the biggest clubs in this country. Looking back in my life, if someone had said I’d be playing for Leeds in however many years time, I’d have snapped their hands off.
“I went to Wolves and really liked their manager Kenny Jackett. But I really wanted to test myself at a higher-level. “Blackburn came in and I made the decision to speak to them.
“Again, they were a great club with a great manager and who are going in the right direction – with a great assistant in Terry McPhillips, who I knew from back at Crewe.
“But then on Sunday, I found out Leeds were interested.
“You don’t need much persuading to sign for Leeds.
“I was all set to go to Blackburn and I think if it had been any other (Championship) club bar Leeds, I would have still been on my way to Blackburn.”
The persuasive charms of a club like Leeds may have spoken plenty to Murphy, but the pitch of his new manager certainly firmed up everything in his mind.
And the words of McDermott – who waxed lyrical about Murphy yesterday, labelling him as the best player in League One no less – soon convinced the Cheshire lad, if he needed any more swaying, he was making the right move.
Not that Murphy was without his own a ‘heads-up’ on his new gaffer, with long-serving Crewe assistant boss Neil Baker providing him with a glowing reference regarding McDermott.
Murphy, who ended a 16-year association with Crewe, who he had been on the books at since the age of seven, to move to West Yorkshire said: “I have seen Brian on TV in interviews and really liked how he came across and it was the same on Sunday.
“We had a little chat and a coffee and connected straightaway.
“As soon as we had a chat, that’s when my head was fully turned and I was looking in different directions to where I was the previous day.
“Everyone I have spoken to about the manager speaks very highly of him.
“Earlier on in pre-season, I did have an idea Brian McDermott did like me as a player and I spoke to Neil Baker about it and he said: ‘You won’t get a better manager than Brian.’
“I take Neil’s advice very seriously and when he is telling me things like that, that’s something I have got to seriously think about.”
The first to admit that he was ripe for stepping up to the next level after a long and fruitful association with Crewe, Murphy now simply cannot wait to start making Championship waves at United after proving himself over several seasons in the lower leagues.
While the apex of his former club’s ambition was to reach the second tier, a level that the Railwaymen played at between 1997-2002 and 2003-06, Leeds’ aspirations all centre around returning to the Premier League, which they last played at in 2003-04 – with the clock ticking loudly.
Having seen the likes of former Railway colleague Alex Westwood – who he took over the captaincy from at the Alexandra Stadium last summer – move onto the big time at Aston Villa, with scores of other Crewe players having also followed a track to the top-flight, it’s plainly where Murphy ultimately wants to be.
If he can achieve that with his new club, you sense it would mean the world to him.
He said: “It would be massive to help Leeds go up. Leeds are a Premier League club and if I can be part of something and help take them back there than would definitely be the best moment in my career.
“To get a massive club back where they belong.”

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