Burton Albion boss Nigel Clough has hailed Leeds-owned Luke Murphy.
Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough has told the Burton Mail that he will tell Leeds United boss Paul Heckingbottom just how impressive Luke Murphy has been.
The Brewers were relegated to League One on Sunday afternoon, as a 2-1 defeat away at Preston North End condemned Clough’s men to the drop.
Some players may be looking to leave the Pirelli Stadium in order to return to the Championship, but one player will be heading back to the second tier with Burton unable to do anything about it.
Midfielder Luke Murphy has been on loan with Burton since January 2017 having fallen out of favour at Leeds United, and he has been a regular for Clough ever since.
Murphy has made more than 50 appearances for Burton during his extended loan stay with the club, but now look set for a return to Elland Road, where he was frozen out.
Clough has now been asked whether Murphy will be signing for Burton permanently, but told the Burton Mail that the club don’t have the finances to secure his signature.
Clough added that he thinks Murphy will get a chance in the Leeds first team next season, and revealed that he intends to speak to Leeds boss Paul Heckingbottom this week in order to tell him just how well Murphy has played.
“No, finances will prohibit that unfortunately,” said Clough. “Luke has been one of the best lads you could wish to work with over the last 18 months. I’m going to put a call in to Paul Heckingbottom in the next couple of days just to make sure he’s aware of he well he’s done for us. He got frozen out at Leeds two years ago, he joined us in the January and then he came back.”
“But I think Paul will look at the situation differently. I think he phoned him as soon as he got the job as well, which helped. And I think Luke will get a chance at Leeds next season to prove himself in the Championship, I hope he does, because he’s good enough,” he added.
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