With the departure yesterday of Jamie Murphy on loan to Burton Albion in England’s League One, we have to wonder how bad he must now be to have gone instead of Sheyi Ojo or Brandon Barker.
These two were signed in the summer, Ojo just as a talented player with a better CV than Ryan Kent, and Barker as a bit of a panic buy in the event of the failure to get Kent.
And while Ojo has had one maybe two brighter matches, his overall performances have been diabolically shocking, where Barker’s haven’t even been at that level.
And yet it’s left winger Jamie Murphy, a former Scottish international with PL experience and a CV well beyond either of them that is regarded as excess, and not good enough to beat either Barker or Ojo.
Obviously it’s Steven Gerrard and his management who see these guys in training, week in week out, not us, but we have to wonder just how rank rotten Jamie Murphy has ended up being to lose his place at Ibrox to Ojo and Barker, both of whom are among the least popular players in the shirt.
And yet, he’s actually managed a decent gig – Burton have a decent shout at a playoff spot, and could well be a Championship side next season – and manager Nigel Clough knows him well, and will have watched him in dev squad matches. He will know the player he’s getting.
So is this the right call?
It’s a well known truth that, right or wrong, Steven Gerrard has his favourites – Murphy actually fell into that category last season during the UEL run, but once injured was binned ruthlessly. That is how Stevie works, and we’re not judging it.
But for Barker and Ojo now to be the main competition to Kent and Aribo, along with Jones, really makes us wonder:
1: How bad Murphy has to be to fall behind those two in the pecking order.
2: If it was the right call letting him go at all.
Answers on a postcard.
Clearly I think Gerrards making right decision with Murphy he's been here long enough and not made the cut on various occasions for whatever reason and we need to thin the squad ojo was summer signing I think we give him to summer to improve then if not down the road 😊
Murphy has done nothing wrong and for me is a better all round player than Ojo and Barker what lets Murphy down is his lack of pace. But we had to trim the squad a bit loans or sales unforunately for Murphy the Gaffer sees him as the man to go
Given that Stevie really wants to win the league, his reaction at the end of the game at Celtic park showed how much he wants Rangers to be successful. So while he will have favourites, in exactly the same way as other successful managers have favourites, Jamie Murphy must have fallen way below the level of performance that he was showing before his injury. It is huge shame for Murphy, but quite rightly Stevie can't afford to allow sentiment to affect his decisions.
I don't think ability is the issue. Murphy needs games to get him back to whatever level he is now capable of but Gerrard simply can't afford to let players get up to speed in the first team. The season is too important. And to be entirely fair both Ojo and Barker probably suffer from the same situation regardless of what you think of them. Ojo actually had decent goal and assist stats when he was playing regularly at the start of the season. Anyway good luck Jamie Murphy!
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