The 27-year-old midfielder has impressed at Burton Albion after falling out of favour at Leeds United.
Perhaps Luke Murphy just wasn’t cut out for this new, improved Leeds United.
The club’s first £1 million signing in eight years when he moved from Crewe Alexandra in 2013, according to The Independent, it’s no coincidence that he was a regular for three seasons until Garry Monk took over in the summer and dragged Leeds out of their mid-table stupor.
After being omitted from the side for the entire first half of the season alongside Tounami Diagouraga, Murphy joined survival hopefuls Burton Albion in January and appears to have found his level.
A classy operator, the 27-year-old has impressed in midfield for The Brewers and, although they are just one point above the drop zone, he insists that he has rediscovered his love of the game after escaping his Elland Road exclusion.
“I wanted to get back playing,” Murphy, who has proven an astute addition at either end of the pitch, told the Burton Mail.
“I wanted to come somewhere, enjoy it again and get back to loving football, which this club has helped me to do.
“I’ll always be thankful for that. And obviously fighting to keep Burton in this division gives me a purpose (for) playing week in, week out.
“I’d much rather that than just go and play for the sake of playing somewhere.”
However, the fact that Leeds, sitting pretty in fourth, are hardly struggling without him suggests that Murphy’s spell at Elland Road may have come to its logical conclusion.
He’s demonstrated in recent weeks that he is a solid midfield option at a lower Championship club and, with Liam Bridcutt and Ronaldo Vieira ahead of him in the pecking order at Leeds, it seems a summer exit would at least provide him with the opportunity to start afresh.
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