Arsenal striker Rhys Murphy believes he is incredibly lucky and privileged to be granted a professional contract with the club, and has admitted he is willing to put the hard work in to make his dreams become a reality.
The 17 year old was granted professional terms at the end of the season despite missing the majority of the campaign with injury, and Rhys says he has some catching up to do if he wants to reach his potential.
“I’ve got plenty of catching up to do because last season was wasted.”
“I returned for pre-season raring to go, probably fitter than all the other reserves and youth team players I was training with. I wanted to build on what I’d done.”
Although he spent six months of the year out injured, the dedicated hit-man enthuses that he always kept faith in his abilities, but did experience some tough times.
“I never stopped believing I’d get my professional deal but I felt really low with all the injuries last season. I tried to keep positive, with the help of my family, but it became more and more frustrating as I had one setback after another.
“The other players tried to keep my spirits up but I knew I was on my own. I had to get myself through it.”
Murphy returned in excellent form towards the back end of the season, and whilst his goals helped both the Reserves and Under 18’s to strong finishes, the player himself remained disappointed with his performances.
“I got a few games in at the end of last season but wasn’t happy. I’ve worked hard this pre-season to get back to full fitness.”
“I want to get back to my old self and push on.”
With the tough times now firmly behind him, Rhys is focused and ready for the future challenges that being a professional will bring. He also had high praise for both Arsenal, and everybody associated with the club.
“It feels great to be a professional with Arsenal. I know I’m a lucky boy. As a kid all I wanted to do was was play football and now I’ve been fortunate enough to be given the chance at one of the biggest clubs in England and even Europe.”
“It is a wonderful place to go each day. There are lots of fantastic players and coaches. The foreign boys and English lads all get on well and learn from each other. It is a brilliant atmosphere.”
With everything perfect for his development, the mature striker says he earnt the right to play for the Gunners on his own merit.
“I have to play well to progress. Liam Brady has recognised what I’ve done by giving me a contract but I don’t expect favours from anyone. Anything I earn I will earn for myself.
“I have got a golden opportunity and want to take it. I will keep my feet on the ground. When you don’t things go wrong.”
Rhys will be heading back to his former hunting ground on Saturday as Neil Banfield takes a Reserves XI to Crawley. The fixture will signal just how far he has developed, as both a player and person.
You can read our previous analysis of Rhys’s talents Here.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Am I right in suggesting he is A Robbie Fowler type striker? Anyway great attitude that deserves good results. Good Luck
no hes a wayne rooney type striker to me with his power and aggressive play, and bit micahel owen with his finishing.
j any news on amuary i biscoff. As i remember you saying that he was at our trainning ground proving his fitness.
And back to the article what type of striker is he, moreover do you think he stands a genuine chance of breaking into the first team in 3 to 4 years.
He doesn’t have the technique of Fowler or Rooney, but he has heart and is very strong mentally and physically.
Boy this kid is the real deal. People have been calling out for an Alan shearere type striker he is the new alan sheare. Hes about 6ft 2 very strong bulky like rooney. But he has amazing quick feet and is very fast. But the main thing is hes a goal scorer.
Yeah J, i was wondering about Bischoff too. He seems like a clever and mature bloke.
is he 6ft 2?????????? how do you know that, but if its true OH MY GOD!!!!! what a beast.
6ft 2 and that fast?? JS can you confirm he is tall?
i have seen him play for the england under 17 euro champions hips lasy year. Him and henri lansbury looked class in that tournament.
U know who else is fast bendtner-he is quick for his size hes about 6ft4/5 and he has brilliant pace
Sounds like he has a great attitude, lets hope he can make the grade. It’s a shame that players like Bentley, Pennant, etc. couldn’t have had the same attitude that many of our current players have.
Either way, it’s great to see so many of our youngsters having level heads and seeming fairly intelligent lads, unlike the English contingent of other teams!
From what I have seen I would think he is closer to Shearer than Fowler – but he has some subtlety to his scoring prowess – a huge talent, arguably one of the best on our books IMHO.
The latest i had was Bischoff was working to get his fitness before any deal could be done. If i get any updates i will add them.
Murphy is not 6’2, he is around 182cm (nearly 6ft). Quick, strong, engertic and a great finisher.
on bbc he is said to be 185cm and that is about 6ft 1/2 so he might be that tall.
FM doesnt count I know, but Murphy was an absolute monster for me :-)
Good luck to the lad, he has a good attitude.
J, on skysports it shows arsenal have sold martinez to espanyol!? never heard of him is this a mistake?
skysports is slightly fucking different to the sun “you fucktard” I have never heard of this martinez so was wondering if it was a mistake.
well as far as i know, this blog gets news before any site on the web, so i dont know what the hell your on about mate. keep it up J.S this site is top notch.
Aye, Coquelin transfer is an example, announced on here way before anywhere else.
Great blog so keep it up J.
Murphy is a good player which i havent seen much of yet, i saw him play for the England u17s a couple of seasons back and he looked very skillful and confidant on the ball (it was the final of what i think was the U17s euro, which we lost 1-0 if i remember correctly vs spain).
He came back and got into good scoring form at the end of this season, and if he isnt happy with that then im happy, cuz that means he really feels he has something to give.
FM doesnt count I know, but Murphy was an absolute monster for me
Good luck to the lad, he has a good attitude.
Neal S said this on July 24, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I sold him to Boro but with a low buy back price, he was the third highest scorer in the league for them, so i bought him back, he flopped and I sold him to Newcastle where he’s getting 15ish a season.
Am excited by what I’ve heard about him but with Barazite and Vela being close to breaking in the first team, we will have 7 strikers the season after next if no-one is sold. And then if Ade is sold and Bendtner doesn’t prove himself yet, AW may still be forced to buy a replacement. By then Vela, Bendtner, Walcott, Eduardo and van Persie will all be genuinely fighting for a first xi regular place, with Barazite (and maybe Simpson) presumably having the Carling Cup spot. And this Afobe kid, who’s supposedly some kind of wonder(kid), will be 17ish and biting at the heels of the team.
This is all assuming that our scouts don’t find the next Maradona or Drogba to be shipped over from Osbcuro F.C., which means we’ll have up to 7 or 8 players 20+ trying to fight for a starting place.
Rhys Murphy’s gonna have to be something special to fight his way to the top of that and if the talent of recent English strikers are anything to go by, I just don’t see him toppling the likes of Eduardo. Only Ablongahor, Walcott and Rooney look like they could be genuinely great strikers but then for now I can only think of Sears, Campbell and Sturridge as any other examples that won’t make it (in any special way). It doesn’t look good for the national teams future.
I was talking to my mate the other day about how we took advantage of the ridiculous amount of striking talent England had in the nineties and how bare it looks now. Hell, Arsenal’s best two (Smith and Wright) rarely made the first xi and were terrific. Then there was Sheringham, Shearer, Sutton, Ferdinand, Cole, Fowler, a couple others. I guess you could count Owen as well, he came to prominance at the 98 WC. My list of 3 prospects looks rubbish compared.
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad we will hopefully be in the situation of turning away great footballers, it means we can pick and choose from the best. But on the other hand, it’s such a shame that we have to turn away players that look so promising and that no-one else in the Premier League is producing similar talent. If only I could have been born Argentian ;) . I’m also not saying we will turn him away, he could turn out to be the next Shearer and I’d be so glad he would for Arsenal, I just think it’s gonna get to that point in 2 or 3 years time when we are gonna have to get rid of some excellent prospects.
I personally think that if Rhys Murphy can stay fit and that he keeps progressing as a football player then Arsenal and England could have a top class striker on there hands in a few seasons time injury and form permitting of coarse IMO
sorry for the giant post.
that martinez was bought from that Arsenal club in Argentina
Great to see Murphy back fully fit and raring to go after last season’s disaster. He didn’t look right when he finally came back.
Before the injury I was touting him as a future England star (and I don’t do that lightly). He’s 6ft tall, quick, strong, goal scorer, skillful, tricks and step-overs, good at laying the ball off. I’m not too keen on that Barazite lad though.
“sorry for the giant post.”
Dnt worry, u made some gd points.
I cant agree about Sears, there could well be summin a bit special about him, he blitzed our U18s this season so hes obviously above his age group and hes looked exiting and skilful for the Hammers first team with out sadly looking clinical, but that can come, its early days.
Campbell did well in the championship but i cant see him breaking into the utd first team and id imagine he’ll be a kind of Defoeish player england wise, probably do well for a mid-table club, get a few call-ups, never manage any consistantcy, but again, u can never quite tell in football. I meen if u told me two seasons ago Adebayor would become our top scorer and Milan and Barca would be scrapping for him, id have told u to go nd get ur head checked. On the counter if ud told me Aliadierre would fail and end up an underperforming Borro player two seasons ago id have said the same. Its a funny old game…
Johnny Maverik – Cheers mate, your support and comments make an excellent addition to the blog :)
“Johnny Maverik – Cheers mate, your support and comments make an excellent addition to the blog :)”
Ta very much ;)
Its a pleasure to beable to comment here. I now cnt remember what it was like to have to wait 2 weeks for proper Arsenal news to crop up in the pre-season, this blog is great, fills that footballing gap that the transfer window leaves u in. Plus its not just a load of bollocks either, well founded and structured articles, very much worth reading.
All this is proven by the way massive news corporations such as Sky (i believe thats who u said it was) have started to nick ur news articles! If they think its worth it then u must be doin summin right.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aiCbz3S_ZsY Simpson discuss his arsenal future and hes goal against barnet worth a watch
JM: I totally agree. When I spoke of Sears and Campbell, I meant that they’d be the type who would be successful at midtable clubs, kinda the Bentley archetype (not good enough for a top 4 team, looks too good for a midtable team though…). Which is exactly the problem for the England team: I like him but Ablongahor looks the type that would fail at a team better than Villa leaving only Walcott and Rooney as realistic selections for the England team when the likes of Crouch and Owen are too old to be regularly selected (So in say 5 years time…).
If Capello has been told he has to make it to the semis, he is screwed. That’s ok, Brooking has said it’s not a realistic goal and this generation has largely been written off. In two years time a partnership of 2 of Crouch, Rooney, Theo, Ablongahor and Defoe could achieve results but no-one is expecting them to be as good as the likes of Benzema will be, or Pato/Robinho or Torres/Villa/Bojan. I’m looking at that team like i’d be pleasantly surprised and happy if we made it past the group stages. Of course it will hurt like every England loss, but my expectations are writing them off, so anything past absolute failure is good in my books.
But it’s the team after that which worries me and should all England supporters. Realisticly, only 5 teams in England look like they can be producing players of quality: Arsenal, West Ham, Man City (and I can see Thai-dude ruining it) and possibly Villa and Spurs. I guess Everton, Pompy and Liverpool are gonna have to start reassessing their academies with the stadium proposals but for now, the country is largely relying on 3 teams. Both City and WHU have a great track record from the past ten years (Lampard, Rio, Cole, and now this new batch incl. Sears; SWP, Johnson, Richards, Onouha etc.) and we look to be set to producing wonderkids (just look at Wilshere) and our developing the likes of Walcott, hopefully to full potential. But’s that not enough and City and West Ham’s academys aren’t realisticly looking at creating world class players, just good ones in the sense that seemingly any good player is a bonus: West Ham would be irresponsible to aim at anything above possible Uefa Cup/Intertoto qualification, why blow all your resources and more (ala Leeds) and fail doing any more?
We have an abundance of talent, so much so that we look like we might hit an unfortunate state of too many good players. But why aren’t the rest of the top 4 like this? Of course the Chelsea academy is full of the best young foreign talent but they refuse to play them and it’s stifling their own academy players: who they also wouldn’t play as the risk of playing youngsters is seen as too much of a liability. Mourinho came out and said he saw that Sinclair kid as part of the squad in the long-term future but the demands on Scholari must be so stressful and other resources are available to mean that he’d never have to use the option of trying out academy kids when points mean money and respect.
Ha, again sorry for the size. Have been in a ranting mood today.
Top young striker, he’s got the attitude to match his superb work ethic. Definitely one to look out for in the Reserves this season and good luck to the lad.
Chelsea r wankers, cnt believe Scott Sinclair hasnt played more, personally i always saw him on par with Walcott, perhaps lacking his pace but making up for it in his superb technique and trickery on the ball. I really think they’ve set him back, perhaps perminatly damanged his future, much like they did SWP, think back to the player who turned out for City, and now look at him, a shadow, could have been such a special player.
I agree, atm its not looking great for England near future *as in the next 5 seasons), but u never know whos round the corner in terms of emerging talents. Thats the point thou, we’re basing future success on emerging talents that have even emerged yet and quite possibly never will. Englands world class 11 atm:
GK
RB Ferdinand Terry LB
RM Gerrard CM (hargreaves or barry??) Joe Cole?? (Not convinced)
FC Rooney
…Lacking a few players…very much so
Bentley can still fill the RM positon in my opinion and Walcot should beable to fill a role in their somewhere in the next 2 seasons, maybe Richards to right-back again? Worked last time and he cnt get worse (unless he joins chelsea)… but still…its very much a case of clutching at straws. Wilshire wont be ready for england for Atleast another 2 seasons, probably more like 3 to 5 or even never if it all goes wrong.
J, where did you find this interview mate?
Here mate – http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/argusgeneralsportsnews/3544235.Lancing_youngster_signs_for_Arsenal/
:)
It’s a shame that Chelsea are gathering kids up and letting them rot. Sinclair does indeed look a great talent, and it stems a lot further – I’d be surprised if Di Santo or whatever his name ever breaks into the first team. It’s killing the game so badly.
It’s terrible that for a country to have 2 teams in the final of the biggest domestic competetion, 3 in the semis, 4 in the quarters, have been 5 out of 8 challangers in the final and done pretty well in the UEFA Cup too, should be so bad internationally. But that’s kind of the problem isn’t it? It’s too big a business for Chelsea to open up possibilities to youngsters, too much of a liability to give a youngster a chance. Spending 30m on Shevchenko got little return on the pitch but at least with big name signings it helps put names on the back of Chelsea shirts in China. If Scott Sinclair goes into the first team and fails, you don’t get that, but then you don’t waste 30m.
The problem is the hounding up of young talent and not using them to even near the best of their ability though. Look at the list of players they bought that looked like they could have become stars and were ruined: SWP, Scott Parker, Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson, a ton of u18s to spite Arsenal’s policy… i’m sure if they bought Rooney or Walcott he’d have become just another ‘what if…?’ and I don’t see them slowing down with this policy.
What exactly is the “protocol” on this site. There are massive posts that appear to have little to do with Murphy.
Still it is about football, rather than say, global warming or Max Mosley.
“global warming or Max Mosley.”
Dont get me started on global warming or the bloody max mosley saga, ill be here all day. ;)
Cheers Chris. :)
Murphy looks good at is likely we won’t buy many if any strikers in the coming seasons (if players stay). Some of the younger ones will start top fulfil their potential i.e. Bendtner, Walcott, Vela. Some may be sold i.e. Adebayor and V.Persie(?) so there may be a chance. Seems to be like rooney but how good is his link up and vision? Thanks
(Max Mosley saga = Most annoying thing ever. How a bit of harmless S&M (the non-nazi kind) affects someones ability to make cars go around in a circle i’ll never know.)
LSOE: The place seems to have built a community of people obsessed with Arsenal and they take the academy set-up as a common point in conversation, especially J’s great writing for specific topics. But it’s in no-way restricted to that, it would rather stagnate the blog if that was all we were allowed to talk about. A lot more goes on in our common interest (football) other than the niche, or indirectly involving our niche (for example, transfer rumours, overall development, internationals etc.).
And you know, there are just some days where fuck all happens in football so if people wanna talk and don’t just wanna repeat themselves, Max Mosley or global warming might break the ice.
Martinez poised to join Espanyol from Arsenal (not arsenal fc)
Espanyol have announced they are set to sign Argentinian midfielder Roman Martinez from Arsenal de Sarandi.
The 25-year-old, who has spent the past two seasons on loan at Argentinian side Atletico Tigre, will join the Barcelona-based club on a four-year deal.
A statement on http://www.rcdespanyol.es read: ‘Roman Fernando Martinez will be the fourth signing for the Blanc-i-blaus this season, after an agreement in principle was reached in the last few hours between Espanyol and Argentinian club Arsenal de Sarandi.
‘The negotiations, which were carried out in Barcelona until the early hours of the morning, will allow Roman Martinez to sign (with the club) for the next four seasons.’
Martinez has been one of the revelations of this season’s Apertura league in Argentina, where he has helped newly promoted Tigre to second place.
His arrival follows those of Argentinian goalkeeper Cristian Alvarez, defender Gregory Beranger from Numancia and Jose Callejon from Real Madrid.
JS.Time to introduce a length rule I think, don”t you?? Some posts way too long.
I fear Rhys Murphy, like Theo, is not quite good enough for Arsenal.Wilshire by the way shows the most class in any company he is placed in. Youth, reserves, first team friendly. This season, I wonder, a late sub appearance against a lesser team?
Keep up the absolutely excellent work.
“(Max Mosley saga = Most annoying thing ever. How a bit of harmless S&M (the non-nazi kind) affects someones ability to make cars go around in a circle i’ll never know.)”
…couldent agree with u more.
“global warming might break the ice.”
Very true in more than 1 way…
“The problem is the hounding up of young talent and not using them to even near the best of their ability though. Look at the list of players they bought that looked like they could have become stars and were ruined: SWP, Scott Parker, Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson, a ton of u18s to spite Arsenal’s policy… i’m sure if they bought Rooney or Walcott he’d have become just another ‘what if…?’ and I don’t see them slowing down with this policy.”
Good point Samuel, hence why young players generally choose Arsenal if they have the option because they know Arsene will risk them playing at the highest level even if it means points/games lost. I’m amazed that Chelsea bother to maintain an academy at all as (correct me if I’m wrong) but I cannot think of one player they have brought through their ranks in the recent past.
Carlton Cole was the last (relativley) big name chelsea academy product, but hes only really found his way into regular first team football since leaving them. Other than him i cnt think of any in recent years. John Terry is a big one but hes not recent (stared playing first team football with any regularity back in the 2001/2002 season).
But hey, why are we worrying about Chelsea. Arsenal now has a great academy and youth development system, we have some wonderful players coming through (there isnt one that i cnt see going on to play regular first team football at some league level, even if it isnt premier league) and Murphy, whilst not really being one of the obvious front runners, has a better chance than many of making it here at the club, and at any rate will make it as a good quality player and most likely in the premiership.
15-year-old Joseph McArthur set to join Arsenal on scholarship terms from Galway United after impressing during a trial in early May.
interesting…. Sources? Not that im doubting u… what position is he?
I think we will be the new West Ham in the years to come, in terms of producing English players. But you gotta be impressed by the West Ham academy. J. Cole, Defoe, Carrick, Ferdinand, Lampard. But West Ham haven’t produced much the latest years tho.
The future of Arsenal looks bright! Let’s hope for some silverware this year!
*well, ofc, the have produced players like G. Johnson, noble. but hey ;)
Why would we sign Bischoff? I’m assuming he’d be used in the CM role alongside Cesc.
He’s not experienced. And I don’t think he can be called a wonderkid since he’s not made a senior breakthrough at 21 yrs.
So given that we already have Diaby, Denilson, Djourou, Song, Ramsey, Coq-au-Vin, Merida lining up as candidates for this position, why Bischoff?
I’m obviously missing something here.
Coq-au-Vin
is it how its pronounced or u r just mocking his name??
Its prononce coq eu lin in french
Coq-au-Vin??
Marvellous! he’ll carry that for ever.
now apparently we are about to make an offer for victor moses for about £1m-£3m. is this true, because i dont understand why we would need another young striker. unless hes a winger. any info on this guy you lot?
Arsenal are rumoured to be after victor mosses
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/transfernews/article1467726.ece
He can play as a striker or a winger gunna4lyf…
Now this is a prominant football blog in which the same people chat shit on the regular, ever thought about a fantasy football league?
I still think Bischoff isn’t gonna end up an Arsenal player. Moses looks cracking.
Yea well…i trust the sun about as much as i trust adolf hitler. Any organisation that constantly bangs on about bringing back the death penalty for criminals is in my opinion on the same moral standing.
I meen when was the last time the Sun jumped in and announced some well founded and well sourced football related new that no1 else had got their hands on yet?
Lloyd TG – I think you are being wayyyy to hasty and harsh writing off Murphy after one nightmare season. Walcott has had chance after chance so it’s no comparison. At least give Rhys a chance to get going. This time last year he was a top English prospect and doing better than future England star Danny “Samba Boy” Welbeck.If you want to write someone off, Barazite is yer man. And a few of the other young foreign forwards.
“I think you are being wayyyy to hasty and harsh writing off Murphy after one nightmare season.”
Agree with that…
“If you want to write someone off, Barazite is yer man. And a few of the other young foreign forwards.”
But most definatly not that…
If Murphy can get back on track he’ll see off Barazite no probs.
Theo and Rhys? Well what an interesting one and we will know the answer in the next two years.
LSOE – I am not comparing Theo and Rhys just making an assessment of their football ability taking age and experience into account.Neither will be a long term Arsenal player as it stands today. Believe me when I say I hope I have egg dribbling down my face in due course.
Johnny Maverick is I hope correct about Barazite. What is there not to like?? Big, technically gifted, eager to learn. We’ve got something there let’s hope the scouts of other clubs make an equally daft judgement about him.
I was just saying Murphy hasn’t had a chance (last season an all) Walcott has had loads (but yeah he’s still young etc). All I am sayin’ is give Rhys a chance. All I am saying is give Rhys a chance. All I am saying is give Rhys a chance la, la, la.
I think I’ve got a hit on my hands there.
That was witty, actually. Keep that for the stadium if he does make it you will be a legend!!!
All together now…!