Football fans everywhere love it when a youth player breaks into the first team and challenges multi-million pound players for their place. And we at Norwich are no different. Over the years we’ve had our fair share; Craig Bellemy, Robert Green, Jason Shackell and Chris Martin have all lived out every Canary fans boyhood dream and now it’s the Murphy twins’ chance. All of the aforementioned players moved on when the time was right but there is no reason why this has to be the case for the wingers from Wembley.
The 20-year-olds Joshua and Jacob Murphy have real talent. Having helped Norwich win the 2013 FA Youth Cup under the guidance of Neil Adams, both have gone on to appear for the first team since. However, Josh’s progress appears to be further ahead than that of twin brother Jacobs with Josh featuring 29 times for City in total, scoring four goals. Jacob on the other hand, hasn’t quite managed to make the same impact with only two appearances to his name, both coming in cup competitions.
Josh did appear to be becoming a regular under Neil Adams at the start of last season, playing an important role in the majority of his early matches in charge. However, he found opportunities hard to come by following Alex Neil’s arrival in January and only managed to make a further two appearances before being loaned out to Wigan towards the end of last season. Meanwhile, Jacob spent almost all of last season being loaned out to three different clubs; Blackpool, Scunthorpe and Colchester.
Both are attacking wingers with blistering pace, it is easy to see why they have the potential to become firm fan favorites like the great Darren Eadie and Darren Huckerby before them. England are also well aware of the brothers, with both having been involved with U20’s since last year. Comparisons with fellow winger Nathan Redmond are accurate too as all three players represent England at youth level and have the same attributes. The prospect of twins at their full potential playing alongside an in-form Redmond is very tasty indeed.
But after two years on the brink of the first-team picture, I would like to think that this will be the season that Josh Murphy can really break through and hold his place, like he did in the early part of Neil Adams tenure. However as competition for places is so fierce, Alex Neil will not have the same affection regarding the Murphys that Adams would have had, due to his part in their development and this will make the young wingers’ task all the more difficult.
The future remains unclear about what will happen to these academy graduates but I hope both players will be challenging for places in an already very strong City midfield. Both players have massive potential and it is vital we hang on to these assets and don’t sell them on cheaply because they want first-team football. Norwich are light on wingers at the moment, but with the Robbie Brady’s transfer from Hull looking imminent, assuming both sides can ever agree on a fee, I wouldn’t be surprised if both players spent another season on loan.
They may not be the only ones coming through the youth system either. Young Jamaican striker Jamar Loza has continued his progression into the first-team picture and won over fans with a last minute equalizer against Huddersfield; they won’t forget his name in a hurry. The future’s looking bright .
