Jacob Murphy has no regrets over loan deal at Sheffield Wednesday

The winger swapped the Premier League lifestyle to join the Owls on a season-long loan from Newcastle United last summer.

The 25-year-old winger – Newcastle’s £12m signing from Norwich City in 2017 – was in a team challenging for promotion before Christmas.

But when the coronavirus crisis brought a halt to football around the globe last week, the Owls were languishing in mid-table.

Just two wins and nine defeats in 14 Championship games had seen the club’s season plunged into a tailspin, and the threat of EFL punishment – and a possible points deduction over the sale of Hillsborough – meaning relegation was a stark possibility.

Not quite what Murphy had signed up for.

But the winger’s recent form has been one of the few bright spots in 2020 at Hillsborough.

And Murphy credits Owls manager Garry Monk for helping him to regain his confidence after a testing time on Tyneside.

“If I can get the outcomes I want from myself this season, it puts me in good stead going into the summer and into next season (at Newcastle),” Murphy said.

“I want to regain that confidence and get back to that old Jacob Murphy, which did really well at Norwich, to get a move to the Premier League.

“That’s the kind of form I wanted to get back to. I feel from this loan, so far, I have achieved that, but I want more.

“I had a few calls (in the summer) but I decided this club was probably the best move for me, and I don’t regret it at all. It’s been great to represent this club.”

Murphy is a quiet, laid-back footballer, but Monk has worked with the winger in adding an aggressive streak to his game.

Monk said: “From what I knew of him before, he was probably not aggressive enough offensively and defensively.

“We spoke about how he could get to those levels when I came in a) from knowing his role in terms of the football and b) mentally how you can put yourself in that heightened sense of aggressiveness that we need from him.

“It is putting your body on the line and being able to take contact and probably relish that contact rather than what he was before.

“He has definitely improved on that side and I have been very pleased with how he has improved. He is definitely moving in the right direction.”

It’s a criticism which Murphy accepts has helped him evaluate his own game.

“I have been working on aggression, getting my confidence back, these are things I have really been working on this season,” explained Murphy.

“Credit to Garry Monk, he has changed my mentality, he has helped me a lot.

“When we have meetings, he sends powerful messages, and they have sunk in.

“He gets me to see things from a different perspective.

“From him being here it has given me more of a hunger and fire in the belly. Every day I just want to work, work, work, I am starving to succeed.

“The boys are hungry as well. They want to win, to get up the table, we are not happy being in the position that we are in.

“One of the main things I wanted to get out of myself this season was to regain confidence, be more ruthless in my attacking.

“I think the gaffer has helped me get to where I needed to be with my own self-belief and stuff.”

An enforced break from playing is never a positive, but when your last match was a humiliating 5-0 defeat – as the Owls suffered at Brentford – then Wednesday’s players will have plenty of time to ponder that performance.

It promoted renewed chants from the club’s travelling support of ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’.

Murphy admits performances – and results – have to improve if they are to win over supporters when, or even if, the Championship resumes on April 30.

“I was embarrassed, hearing the fans say we weren’t fit to wear the shirt, that cut deep,” he said.

“It hurt me to hear that, but that spurred me on to keep fighting, keep running.

“It was 4-0 at the time when they were singing that, but they pay good money to watch us play. We need to give them effort and show that we care.

“Was it deserved? We were losing 4-0 so probably it was, at the time. The boys are willing to fight for this club.”

It’s to be hoped that Murphy – one of a large group of players, including loans and those out-of-contract in the summer – gets another chance this season to show it’s more than fighting talk.