Get the latest NUFC transfer and takeover news straight to your inbox for FREE by signing up to our newsletter Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Daryl Murphy’s car rolled into the Newcastle United training ground a few days after sealing a move that came “like a bolt from the blue”.

“The first thing you notice when you sign for Newcastle and you come in for training is everyone waiting to get autographs off the players as you drive in. I was waiting in line behind the other lads and I thought ‘Uh-oh, what have we got here’,” he recalls with a chuckle.

Murphy was a Rafa Benitez signing and – he modestly admits – “probably an underwhelming one”. “I don’t suppose many of those fans would have looked at me and thought ‘Get in, we’ve signed Daryl Murphy’. And there was the Sunderland thing of course.

“So I just kept my head down but the fans wanted my autograph as well. The first one said: ‘Brilliant, welcome to the club’ and then a kid said: ‘I’ve got Murphy’s autograph!’ I just thought: ‘Alright then, if this is what it’s going to be like, this is going to be great’.”

And so it proved. Murphy’s first thought – that he’d have to prove himself after the summer switch – didn’t quite come to pass.

“I think the fans just had that trust in Rafa, didn’t they? They all thought: ‘If he’s signing him, we’ll give him a chance’. He didn’t sign players for no reason and they trusted him. Maybe he’ll come good and hopefully I proved that in the end.

“I had to wait for it – I tweaked my calf in my first game against Wolves and I didn’t play properly until January but the fans were always behind me, even when I wasn’t playing.

“It just made me think how much I wanted to take my chance when I got it. They’ve been great with you so just don’t let them down.”

Murphy joined Newcastle in the hot days of Benitez’s first summer, when the unofficial motto was ‘What Rafa wants, Rafa gets’.

Benitez needed a target man who knew the Championship and had a list of experienced options that included Rickie Lambert. But after taking soundings he chose Murphy – and it proved to be an inspired decision.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

He was 33 at the time but trained like a 21-year-old. His commitment never wavered in training, despite having to wait months for a chance.

“Every single day I was there, I wanted to make the most of it. Every training session, every gym session, just give it my all. I knew how lucky I was to be at such a big club, going for promotion at that stage in my career. I’d like to think I proved Rafa right in the end.

“I knew for a fact he’d rung five or six people before signing me, finding out all about me. And I’m just thankful he did because as it turned out I absolutely loved it at Newcastle. To get that chance at the age I was, at that club, it was just unbelievable.

“I watched the first game of the season when they played Fulham and they lost and didn’t play well. But they had such good players, you always thought they’d be OK. But you need a big squad in the Championship, which I think is where I came in.”

Murphy was a rare signing over the age of 31. Newcastle bent the rules for Benitez and later Ashley questioned the signing, which bemused a manager who had seen him join the party in January, scoring crucial goals.

“They didn’t sign many players my age – I knew that alright! It wasn't a club that signed players of a certain age because of the owner or whatever. But I think at the time it was just what Rafa said he wanted, they would do for him.

“There’s value in experience and I knew what my role was. And they got their money back in the end, didn’t they?”

It wasn’t just money they received. When Dwight Gayle succumbed to injury in the second part of the campaign, Murphy played a crucial part in promotion. “My first goal was at Brentford – that was a big win. It’s not an easy place to go but we got the win and I remember the fans in that end. It was a great feeling.

“The Rotherham game when I got the first goal at home: that’s when I felt I’d done my part. It was 0-0, just before half-time, the crowd getting understandably edgy and I got a knock down and scored. The relief was amazing. That was another decent win.”

Benitez praised Murphy as the perfect professional in a squad full of them: he trained as he played. “I loved working with Rafa. I learned so much from him. The sessions were short, sharp, enjoyable. You just noticed little things – the way we prepared, you’d just think ‘Yeah, I see what he’s doing’.

“Absolutely everyone knew what their role was, even the lads not playing. He’d built a very good squad but it was a team where everyone was just focused on promotion. No-one was in it for themselves – from lads like Mitro, who is a lovely lad by the way, to your class acts like Dwight Gayle, who scored all sorts of goals. They just wanted to get the club back up.”

For Murphy, one memory of Benitez stands alone. “Every little detail he had. He never left anything to chance.

“We played Huddersfield Town away and it was a big, big game. Promotion was in the balance really but Rafa had a plan. He had seen they were a possession-based team; every week they’d have about 60 or even 70% possession, it was unreal – especially at home.

(Image: The Chronicle)

“So Rafa said: ‘We bypass midfield. We don’t let them get a rhythm in an area where they’re at their best’. We got an early goal and I think it took them until half-time to work out what we were doing. We could have gone toe-to-toe with them and beat them, we were a good side but we just got the plan spot on.”

Murphy left after promotion was achieved. “That last day against Barnsley was just brilliant. We were all on the pitch when we found out we’d won it and when we found out Brighton had all the t-shirts and everything laid on as champions it just made it all the sweeter, didn’t it?”

He wasn’t forced out and could have stayed in the Premier League. “Rafa said he wouldn’t make me go but Forest had put in an offer. I could have stayed and probably would have made the bench in the Premier League with injuries. But I didn’t want to be the lad you put on in the last few minutes thinking ‘Just throw him on’.

“I wanted to contribute. I wanted to play, that’s how I’d always been. And if it was one good season where I did my bit, I’m happy with that.”

Murphy felt Benitez’s departure was “inevitable”. “He just got fed up didn’t he?” he said.

“He had a plan, he had that ambition to be challenging for the very top and if they’d have given him the money I thought he would have done it. There’s a lot of top players who would have come to play for Rafa, you know.

“But he just got to the point where it wasn’t going to happen for him there and it was a massive shame. He was perfect for the club really.”

The striker – now at Bolton – shares the yearning for better times with the supporters who gave him a chance. “I’m watching the takeover stuff now thinking ‘Please let it happen for them’,” he said.

“That club should be challenging for the top honours, never mind trying to win the Championship. I always thought looking from the outside that it could have been more and it just needs someone who has a bit of ambition. The attitude at the moment is they’re delighted to be in the Premier League. If they survive it’s a success but they should be right up there, challenging for the best.

“If they celebrated like they did winning the Championship with my group, can you imagine what would happen if they won something?”