Luke Murphy will be hoping to face former club Leeds United this weekend.
Luke Murphy has suggested that he only learned how big a club Leeds were after joining the Whites, insisting that he was taken aback once he realised, in comments reported by The Bolton News.
The 29-year-old spent around five years on the books at Elland Road, making over 100 league appearances for Leeds before being released at the start of the season. He had spent much of his final couple of years with the Whites out on loan.
Murphy will be hoping to put a dent in Leeds’s promotion hopes this weekend when his Bolton side travel to Elland Road in a game that will have implications at both ends of the Championship table.
And ahead of the game, Murphy – who did not feature in the reverse fixture, that Leeds won 1-0 thanks to a Patrick Bamford goal – reflected on his spell with the Whites, and outlined how the level of support took him by surprise.
“I was buzzing as Leeds is a massive club,” he said, as reported by The Bolton News. “I knew it prior to joining, but it was only once I went there and spent time at the place, I realised just how big they were.
“It took me by surprise at first as I reckon you could go anywhere in the world and there would be Leeds fans. I was really happy to sign and have nothing but respect for them.”
Murphy’s move to Leeds may not have played out how everyone would have hoped – though he did score a stoppage-time winner on his debut – but his arrival still has to be considered an important transfer for the club as it saw the Whites spend around £1 million on the midfielder (via BBC Sport).
You would have had to have gone back almost a decade to the previous occasion where Leeds spent a seven-figure fee on a player. So given all the turmoil that had gone on in the time between those two deals, Murphy’s arrival was a big statement at that time.
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