Jacob Murphy causes a stir with post match comments & antics after Fulham worldie, but was he justified?

Jacob Murphy has been one of the more criticised Newcastle United players for his performances this season, receiving a hefty amount of abuse from the match-going crowd and across social media.

Clearly, he hasn’t done a particularly good job of blocking out that noise, as was shown yesterday in the aftermath of his worldie of a goal that initially put the Magpies in front.

It’s safe to say his celebration and comments haven’t exactly gone down well with the Geordie faithful and a small social media storm has formed in light of Murphy’s antics, with many noting that Murphy hasn’t done anywhere near enough on the pitch to warrant feeling so aggrieved.

From Murphy’s perspective, he clearly has a differing opinion to the Newcastle fans about his performances, and the goal yesterday acted as the perfect opportunity to give a bit back to those who have been on his back - it was an absolute beauty after all.

By no means do I believe a footballer has no right to give it back to fans. In fact, I’d argue it shows a bit of character more than anything else.

But there are ways to do it and circumstances to do it in that are much more fitting than right now at Newcastle United.

I don’t actually have too much of a problem with the goal celebration itself. In a moment of such emotion, and Murphy himself probably being aware that he hasn’t been at his best, I can forgive him for getting a bit carried away.

I will note that I also understand the gripe that fans have with it, though, especially the ones who pay their hard-earned money week in, week out and follow the team around the country.

But the main issue I see is with the comments themselves.

Firstly, it’s worth noting that the Magpies didn’t even go on to win the game yesterday, so making comments towards the fans in the manner he did feels a little disingenuous, especially for a player who is supposedly a Newcastle fan himself.

Murphy has, quite frankly, been shocking for the majority of the season so far and I personally don’t believe an assist against Palace and a good goal in a game we didn’t win is enough to start speaking to the media as if you’re some world beater. Because I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t say one goal and one assist in nine Premier League appearances can be classed as ‘effective’, as he claimed.

Secondly, it’s not like he’s playing for a Premier League winning team and has been putting in some sub-par performances. Instead, what his comments have done is add fuel to an already burning fire at a club in transition who have both a manager and squad that are already facing scrutiny - he’s just making life harder for everybody in aid of his own ego.

Playing devil’s advocate, from Murphy’s perspective I can understand the idea of wanting to prove the doubters wrong at the first opportunity.

Getting abuse from the stands and online every week can’t exactly be an enjoyable experience, but it’s an unfortunate side effect of being a professional footballer and shouldn’t be something that can’t be handled with a little bit more grace than a subtle public call-out that is bound to cause some trouble.

But ultimately his antics simply haven’t achieved anything positive and if he genuinely thought he was making a statement, not a single part of his press release has covered him in glory. In fact, he’s just made things worse for himself from now on (unless he keeps scoring screamers, of course).

All things considered, I think it’s fair to say Murphy is in the wrong on this occasion. Not necessarily because he produced an emotional celebration or gave a bit back to the fans after weeks of abuse, but because the timing, circumstance, and way he did it arguably couldn’t have been much worse.