The Newcastle United striker left Celtic in 2013, but should the Hoops bring him back?
Daryl Murphy told The Chronicle last week that Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez is willing to sell him this summer.
The 34-year-old joined Newcastle last August for £3.5 million but found first-team opportunities hard to come by, with Dwight Gayle their first-choice hitman.
He is expected to leave the St James’s Park club and Celtic – who signed him in 2010 – should explore the idea of bringing him back to Parkhead.
Murphy joined them under Neil Lennon’s tenure, but the big striker only managed 19 Premiership appearances for the Hoops, spending two of his three years on the Bhoys’ books at Ipswich Town on loan.
But there is a sense of unfinished business between the veteran forward and the Scottish Premiership club.
After scoring seven goals in five Championship starts to help Newcastle win Premier League promotion, Murphy said this to The Chronicle: “We got some good results. I didn’t start many games – just seven in the league, nine in all competitions.
“But I scored six times and felt I deserved my medal whereas before, when I was at Celtic, we won the Cup but I barely featured and didn’t take a medal then because I had not earned it. This time I played my part.”
He might well re-join his boyhood club if an offer came his way, but do Celtic need him? Yes and no.
Manager Brendan Rodgers has two of the best hitmen in Scotland in Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths – both of whom have been linked away – but the Northern Irishman could need a plan-b option next term, a goalscorer completely unlike the other two.
Celtic swept all before them last season en route to a domestic treble, without losing a match, but it might not be as easy next time around. It can’t be.
Rodgers’s side only dropped points in four Premiership games last season and neither striker scored in any of them. That underlines the need for a third centre-forward, one with very different strengths, and Murphy could be that player.
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