OPINION
Many Newcastle United supporters had probably given up hope of winger Jacob Murphy ever making a big first team impact a long time ago.
The 24-year-old has never looked likely to burst into life as was hoped when he first joined from Norwich City, and a January loan move to Championship side West Bromwich Albion failed to have the desired rejuvenating effect.
However, there still appears to be hope for him at St James’ Park. The Chronicle reported on Tuesday that manager Rafael Benitez rates the player and that the club want to keep him this summer.
If that is truly the Magpies’ stance then it simply makes no sense. Murphy is too inconsistent and is now at an age where he is beyond just showing occasional flashes of potential. If he can’t make the grade for West Brom in the second tier then how is he ever going to cut it at Newcastle in the Premier League?
He’s a pacy winger, we all know that, yet he seems to have no confidence that he’ll successfully be able to beat his man. He rarely takes players on and his end product is all over the place.
You can understand why Newcastle want to make a success of the Englishman given that they spent £10million on him, but you have to cut your losses at some point. There’s only so long that they will be able to get a decent return for the former Norwich star.
Keeping Murphy around just seems like delaying a problem and hoping it will go away. The club should bin him this summer and use the money from his sale to buy a productive winger to replace him. Job done.
