Jamie Murphy is unlikely to be a regular for Brighton in the Premier League but he could have been a real key man at Rangers.
You can’t blame Jamie Murphy for wanting to seize his first chance in the Premier League this season.
The Scotland winger played 35 times as Brighton and Hove Albion finished runners-up in the Championship last season and returned to the top flight for the first time in 34 years.
The fact that only 20 of Murphy’s Championship appearances came from the start last season, however, should perhaps have warned the 28-year-old that he would be far from a regular on the team sheet in 2017/18. Especially with Brighton spending to reinforce their squad over the summer.
As such, Murphy has made just four appearances all season, his only start coming in the 2-0 defeat to Leicester City in August.
His nine minute cameo in the recent 1-0 win over Newcastle United was his first outing in almost a month.
On the bench again
You wonder whether Murphy would have been more open to a summer move away from The Amex, then, if he’d known how little he would feature for Chris Hughton’s side in the coming months.
According to Sky Sports, Rangers were battling Old Firm rivals Celtic for the signature of the Glasgow-born attacker in the summer. A £4 million price tag would have stretched Rangers’ financial resources given that he would have been their most expensive signing since Nikica Jelavic in 2012.
Yet, the former Scotland Under-21 international could have been one of the first names on Pedro Caixinha’s team-sheet, providing directness and pace on a left flank that the manager has tried in vain for some time to strengthen.
Instead, Murphy looks set to spend the next few months scrambling for the odd substitute outing in Brighton colours.
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