Sod’s law it’s him
For
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. -Thanks JonnyCoco (below)
7. -Thanks JonnyCoco (below)
8. -Thanks JonnyCoco (below)
9. -Thanks JonnyCoco (below)
10.
11. -Thanks JonnyCoco (below)
13. -Thanks JonnyCoco (below)
14. -Thanks Behemoth (below)
15. -Thanks JonnyCoco (below)
16.
18.
21. Scored the goal against Portsmouth that kept Fulham up.
23. Charlton to Tottenham 2006. -Thanks Eddy (below)
Against
12.
19. He and Di Canio were together at Charlton for just one day -Thanks Jay Williams (below)
22. Not played for a newly promoted Prem team
The Checklist
(The origins of these clues can be found here)
1. Is he English?
2. Is he currently married?
3. Has he played under at least 4 managers?
4. Has he had a transfer between 2 Premiership clubs?
5. Was he a Premier League player in January 2011?
6. Has he played with a group of French players at one club?
7. Has he played with a striker who refused to move unless the pass went exactly where he wanted it?
8. Did he play for one manager for a considerable amount of time who was great before losing it?
9. Has he played for a manager who lost the dressing room?
10. Does he have a friend who plays for Liverpool?
11. Might he think Harry Redknapp is the Messiah?
12. Has he appeared as a pundit? (TSF probably doesn’t do so)
13. Did he have a long term girlfriend as a younger player?
14. Had/has a strong father figure.
15. Not an Arsenal or Man City player (at end of 2010-11 season).
16. Did he play a match at some point towards the end of March or first few days of April 2011?
17. Not a keeper.
18. Has a daughter.19. He played with Paolo Di Canio –removed by public demand 20. Someone who’s got a chat about ‘another season’ coming up -see revealing tweet post
21. He’s been involved in a last day relegation battle
22. He’s played for a newly promoted Premier League club
23. Has been subject to a deadline day transfer
24. TSF is Caucasian
25. Has a good friend who is African and has played for a team in Russia
26. Has been diagnosed with depression
27. Played in the lower leagues at start of career
28. Played against Liverpool for a lower league club
29. Was one of the best players in a very successful team
30. Played for a club that got themselves in financial trouble
31. Plays the Paul Scholes role
32. Played under a captain who will go down as one of most successful in the club’s history, without having earned it
33. Played under a stand-in captain wearing a large tubi-grip with a marker pen-written ‘C’ as captain’s armband
34. Has played as captain
35. Has played for a club who promoted their assistant manager to manager (and went on to get bad results)
36. Not a Liverpool fan
37. Played in a team that won promotion to the Premiership
38. Following on from clue 21: That team got relegated due to a goal going in at the other end of the country in the dying minutes of the final game of the season
39. Clue 38 was his last game for that club
40. His wage at the time of clues 38 and 39 was the best part of £100,000 per month
41. He went on to play in the Premiership again after the relegation in clue 38
87 responses to “Danny Murphy”
Does not wanting Andy Gray’s job (a full-time broadcaster) mean that he would NEVER have been a pundit? There’s a big difference between the occasional match (usually for a game where he has links to one of the teams) and commentating every week.
Plus he’s played at a club with a lot of French players (Houllier’s Liverpool), and I wouldn’t be surprised if Diouf was the type who’d ignore a ball not played to his feet.
Yeh, that’s why he’s got it as an ‘against’ but hasn’t yet been ruled out of the list. He’s storming in front in the poll but I have my doubts…
has to be the front runner. owen was the big gambler, heskey the confidence-less striker, houllier the troubled manager (possibly), has friends still at liverpool, massive french presence in houllier’s days and carra telling them english only
pundit thing i think is a red herring. TSF is obviously positioning himself for a life after football… which means he’s getting on
Fulham S/T Holder here. Murphy ace but I don’t think it’s him. Mentioned Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Can’t see Murph as a reader, for one thing. Bright man but not in the intellectually curious sense, imho.
anyone know what sort of education he had? doesn’t prove anything but may strengthen case. as for comment about punditry – so tenuous, needn’t be on list.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jan/29/secret-footballer-andy-gray-pundits
#10 definitely a ‘for’ – the chances he isn’t still good friends with Carragher or Gerrard are nearly 0.
and having added two more criteria to the list (from his twitter) – he got suburnt (so he’s white) and he played golf/plays golf/lives near Slough in London (so he plays for a london or near london based club), it looks pretty certain to be danny murphy.
as for #12, doing the occasional analysis is not the same as what Andy Gray did…
Murphy has a daughter as well.
Any online evidence? Link it here and I’ll as it to the list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Murphy_(footballer_born_1977)
Nice one …added
While we’re ticking off Danny Murphy items:
6. French speaking players under Houllier at Liverpool
7. Berbatov at Spurs
8. Houllier (7 years)
9. Houllier / Jol
11. Probably more than most. He’s played for Spurs so probably pleased to see them doing well under Harry.
13. His first son (born ’96) was with a long term partner before he met Joanna Taylor.
Murphy’s written quite a few columns here: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/danny-murphy/.
The style of writing doesn’t seem to be all that different from that of the secret footballer’s.
Confirmed
On the subject of Murphy appearing as a pundit, the Match of the Day 2 wikipedia page explicitly says that Murphy has appeared on the show before. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_of_the_Day_2.
The Independent’s description of Murphy confirms that saying that: “Murphy has always come across as an intelligent analyst of football. The occasional appearances as a pundit on Match of the Day 2 have demonstrated that too.”
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-alternative-player-of-the-year-1673850.html?action=Gallery.
That article also talks about how he agreed with Redknapp as Barclays Manager of the Year, further confirming his love for Harry.
“Harry Redknapp has done a great job and was very deserving of the Barclays award. Tottenham’s defensive record this season has been exceptional and their turnaround from where they were in the league is very impressive. On the back of this season, with some shrewd investment in the summer, I think Tottenham will cope admirably in next season’s Champion’s League.”
In one of the articles (I forget the date) he talks about a Scandinavian who he considers to be English….surely he must be talking about John Arne Riise therefore it must be Danny Murphy
It could be any number of Scandinavians https://www.whoisthesecretfootballer.co.uk/index.php/the-scandenavian-friend-tsf-forgot-wasnt-english/
When Dennis Rommedahl scored that wonder goal a few years back, TSF congratulated him on first-name terms (in a tweet). Rommedahl used to play for Charlton, as did…
Sorry, not a few years back, a few weeks…
Tenuous … loads of people call footballers by their first names when they’ve never met them.
Di Canio left Charlton, just as Danny arrived….
http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/08/12/d40812041846.htm
Unless, we’re not sure it was this Paolo being referred to in the article
I’ve thought it was the smurf for a long time, but a quick comment on today’s column is that I wouldn’t put too much store by the reference to Paolo….
Surely whoever edits it would be changing names to protect his identity.
There are plenty of foreign players at both Spurs and Liverpool who used to ‘go down in installments’ so to speak.
I noticed that.
Maybe in training?
I think the reference to “Paolo” is a red herring. Names will be changed, although I do think that this means it is a Spaniard, Italian or Portuguese.
re: 11
I think TSF was poking fun at the common conception that Harry’s shit smells of chanel no.5 to anyone involved in the media, so he largely gets hyperbolic praise when things go well and no one criticises him when he makes mistakes.
Not saying it isn’t Danny Murphy, I just think 11 is possibly a misnomer.
I think Paulo is a made up name, surely.
I also think the father figure could be Dario Grad1 ~ he played for Crewe in two stints and, apparently, Gradi thought so much of him he was sent on scouting missions even as a young player.
He was playing against Bolton when the Real Madrid-Barcelona game was being played so it would have been very late when he went to bed. Doesn’t really indicate anything I suppose
murphy as pundit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A49539153
http://cc.fulhamfc.com/forum/topics/danny-murphy-a-pundit-on-itv?xg_source=activity
Consider what Jonathan Leese wrote about him:
“Great to listen to Danny Murphy when he was speaking at the Leaders In Football conference. Any (ex-)player who uses the word “culpable” correctly (and not as in the question: “What does culpable mean?”) deserves respect.”
Murphy is obviously articulate.
Remember, he was outspoken in the newspapers about the styles of play of Stoke, Blackburn and Wolves.
Compare this, with his recent article about the way El Clasico was played.
Here is Murphy talking about managers and discipline:
‘Your manager dictates what your players do and how you behave. If you have a manager who is in control of the team and doesn’t allow these type of things , then you are going to have a more disciplined team.’
Here is the Secret Footballer talking about managers and discipline:
I played with a foreign player who was a master at winning free-kicks after minimal contact. Our manager loved him and would say to us: “You all need to be more streetwise like Paolo,” which roughly translated meant we “should all cheat more like Paolo”.
Murphy writes a fortnightly column which is published inside the Fulham home programs entitled ‘captain’s column.’ It means that he’s already articulate enough to write to that extent.
The fact that Murphy is becoming a reasonably successful pundit (although he’s only made a few appearances, perhaps only two, this year) throws me off a bit. Although it means that he has opinions about football!
Didn’t he also mention that he is/was best mates with a Scandinavian player in a recent-ish article?
There are quite a few Scandinavian players at Fulham – the one I can imagine Murphy getting on with particularly well with is Brede Hangeland.
Good point, unless he recorded it…
1) He’s moved clubs a few times, but stayed in the Premier League, and has a good agent that he trusts and he knows is loyal to him. ( Not Pini Zahavi, Jorge Mendez or any of the big agencies, )
2) Played for a very technically prepared coach ( Mourinho, Benitez, Hodgson,O’niell??)
3) is a deep thinker and knows how the footballing system works ( B- Essou-Ekottu, Lamps, Parker, Murphy, K Davies )
4) comment re manger playing wrong tactics, making team look bad ( I think Blackburn/Bolton/Newcastle under Allardyce, Avram Grant at West Ham/Chelsea, sanchez at Fulham, Dowie at charlton,)
5) has been at a club where the manager has lost the dressing room.
6) has played under what he called a great manager, as well as 1/2 crap ones.
7) Played for a manager who wanted to be “one of the boys”—- Steve McClaren, ( any others?? )
8) Became disillusioned with great manager who started asking him questions regards management.
My guess – Danny Murphy.
smart guy, many clubs, excellent footballing brain – points 1 &3
Played under Gerard Houlier @ liverpool—points 2, 3,6 & 8
Curbishly, Dowie, Reed, @charlton—points 4, 5, 6 & 7
Jol @ Spurs
Sanchez,Hodgson & Hughes @ Fulham points 2,3,4, 5,6,7,8.
The “Paolo” thing is pretty weak evidence I think. It’s more likely a made-up name than a real one, surely, given that the writer is trying to protect his identity?
I don’t know Danny but am related to him so know a fair bit about it. His education – didn’t go to a great school and went off the rails in his mid-teens when his father died. Father figure was Dario Grady, who got him back on the rails. Someone above was correct, he had a son Ashleigh with his childhood sweetheart. FWIW I don’t think it’s him, but I’ll ask around.
12. He has been a pundit. MOTD2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A49539153 ITV http://cc.fulhamfc.com/forum/topics/danny-murphy-a-pundit-on-itv?xg_source=activity
@NorthernLass – Maybe a regional difference, but it jumped out at me: “His education – didn’t go to a great school” Where I live there, is no school that is so bad that a person can not have a very good education. For a person with an interest in learning, like TSF, I just can not grasp how the rating of his school would be a factor.
I must be a bit touchy from having a couple degrees from state schools!
Talking about education and misplacing a comma; I’m going to run far away now. Good bye.
Definitely Murphy now. 21st May refers to 1 relegation last day battle. Only one Murphy’s been involved in was 2008 when he scored the winner for Fulham, relegating Reading.
Regarding point number 20;
I’d assume that most footballers at his age would discuss the option of “another season” a year before his contract ends, ie. now, rather than leaving it until the contract has actually expired.
So I would argue that number 20 is a point FOR him being TSF.
Also, point 12, he has definitely appeared as a pundit on sky sports. I think it was shortly after it all kicked off regarding his comments about dodgy tackles.
He also won the FA cup with Liverpool.
TSF’s comment of “whatever the Stoke and Manchester City players stand to collect in bonuses this afternoon, a winner’s medal will be priceless to them” suggests he’s won it as well…
If my memory serves me correctly Danny Murphy was educated at to GCSE level at a comprehensive school in Chester (Kingsway High School). Which was in those days a decent school without a particularly strong sixth-form.
people with dark skin can get sunburnt.
Re: point 14, this article refs that his dad started taking him to games when he was 8: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/22/danny-muprhy-interview-fulham-united
A lot of the opinions given in the above also seem to coincide with TSFs views of Capello here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/mar/26/the-secret-footballer-fabio-capello
I don’t think TSF was specific enough to say that he’d experienced promotion with a club (if that makes sense.) He could could have moved divisions by moving clubs… Something that Murphy has done. Just a thought. My referring to himself, he could be referring to his reputation altering?
He was very specific in saying he PLAYED for a newly promoted club (whether he got promoted with them or not) …Murphy has never done that…
“I quickly came to realise that this also has its drawbacks when you’re playing for a promoted club”
I still think it is Danny Murphy. he seems to have been ruled out almost soley on the basis that he hasn’t played for a newly promoted club. True enough, he hasn’t played for a club newly promoted to the Premiership but he has played for a newly promoted club in another division. Correct me if I’m wrong on this, but he won promotion with Crewe in 97? was signed by Liverpool in the close season and then returned to Crewe on loan almost straightaway so would have played for a ‘newly promoted club’ just not in the Premiership.
It’s a club newly promoted to the Premier League that TSF talks about.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this thing about him playing for a newly promoted Premier League team seems to come from the following paragraph in the 19th August 2011 article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/aug/19/the-secret-footballer-new-boys):
“Victories in the Premier League come nothing like as easily as they did the year before but there is enormous satisfaction to be taken from getting results as the underdogs. I’ve been in that position and at the end of games witnessed top professionals refusing to shake hands or swap shirts because they couldn’t accept that they hadn’t beaten this team of nobodies and one or two somebodies. And all that does is spur the smaller clubs on.”
He doesn’t directly say he played in a newly promoted Premier League team. When he says ‘I’ve been in that position’ he could also simply be referring to the position of deriving ‘enormous satisfaction’ from ‘getting results as the underdogs’, as Danny Murphy may well have done especially when playing for Crewe in the old First Division. So I think that this ‘clue’ should also be removed, in addition to the clearly erroneous one about Paolo Di Canio.
It’s Danny Murphy.
From the same article:
“There are some things that you simply can’t help getting excited about, like being on Match of the Day every week, although I quickly came to realise that this also has its drawbacks when you’re playing for a promoted club.”
In today’s article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/27/the-secret-footballer-derby-matches) about derbies, TSF states:
“Both teams that day were represented by a handful of local players […] I tried to ask one of our players what the game meant to him but he simply responded: “You wouldn’t understand, mate. Just make sure we win.” I haven’t encountered that level of hostility from a player towards another team before”
Which sounds unlikely given all the Merseyside derbies Murphy has played in.
Could well be talking about his first Merseyside derby, Murphey is unlikely to have played a significant derby at Crewe. Tho he was a childhood red, coming from Chester he would not have come into contact with the hatred prevelant since Everton stopped being a big team.
This is all very silly. I run a number of businesses. Some time ago, I gave some anonymous interviews to a website. I didn’t want anyone, my staff in particular, to identify me. So I changed some unimportant details, thus ensuring that the ‘clues’ couldn’t lead to me.
In this morning’s Guardian says he has captained England – game away – has to be Scott Parker?
Regarding point 23
Murphy moved from Spurs to Fulham on deadline day 2007, apparently.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-most-memorable-transfer-deadline-day-deals-6298467.html?action=gallery&ino=18
Did Danny Murphy play for crewe during after a promotion?
Edit: he played for Crewe in 1994, they were a newly promoted side.
The SF says on one occasion he was with some black players and they said he was “an honorary bro”. So isn’t black.
12 is true, he has appeared as a pundit.
Can you see Danny Murphy being a wine connoisseur?
On his intellect and reading in general, a few years ago there was a PL charity scheme where footballers promoted reading in schools. Each team had one representative from their respective clubs (generally the keenest reader at the club) to pick their favourite book and explain why. The representative from Liverpool was Danny Murphy…Can’t remember what book he picked but made out he was a big reader
Danny murphy played Longside jamie redknapp and jamies wife louise was a famous singer
I think all the possible evidence points to Dave Kitson, but I remember about 10 years ago there was a KopTalk website for Liverpool fans that was quite popular. At the time they had an ‘insider’ at Anfield and it turned out to be Danny Murphy… I have no evidence to back this up and I have scowered google but I cannot find anything related to it as its so long ago. Can anyone back this up..? A lot of the references in the book/articles seem about the North West and North West clubs (specifically Liverpool and United) and I believe Murphy is from Blacon in Chester one of the biggest council estates in the North West… My suspicion is that he isn’t the secret footballer but there could be contributions from him – like suggested about Higgingbottom elsewhere on the site…
Did he play alongside Molby at Liverpool ?
In 2011 I downloadedan article by TSF on from the Guardian website to the Readitlater Android app. When I read the article on Readitlater it said The Secret Footballer by Danny Murphy.
point 36 Not a Liverpool fan surely rules Danny Murphy out of this as he was a red from childhood!!!
Under money (p.162), he talks about famous stadium being turned to flats, highbury? And he had just signed so didn’t purchase, does this mean he played for arsenal? Would link to the French section.
41 – Murphy has only been relegated with Blackburn and hasn’t played in the Prem since
Murph jept the Alex up when coming back on loan from Liverpool for his second stint. He became even more of a hero to the Alex fans then. He then went back to Liverpool and broke into the first team
Murph kept the Alex up when coming back on loan from Liverpool for his second stint. He became even more of a hero to the Alex fans then. He then went back to Liverpool and broke into the first team. I dont think he was a B rovers player when they were relegated, he signed for them after they went down. Strange move though when he was still held in high reguard by Fulham fans
Reading about TSF’s early life does not tie in with it being Danny Murphy – he played for Crewe at age 16 and that does not fit in with the details in First Steps of the book
At the end of the first book it stats that he is a restaurant with his friends in London in which is he is a regular which probes he was playing for a London based team in 2011/12 – Danny happens to be playing for Fulham, he started in the lower leagues with Crewe and then was a poster boy at Liverpool
He mentions in the book that Trevor Sinclair was in the right place at the right time. Didn’t Sinclair replace Danny Murphy in the squad as Murphy had broken his foot? Too much of a coincidence?
Again a reference to a Bob Dylan song…
Thought Danny Murphy before I looked up these posts.
Maybe someone could tell me if Danny Murphy sometimes does or has done, flick ons from throw ins down the line (p110)
Was wondering about Murphy.
His wife had a column on being a ‘footballers wife’ in The Times a few years back, and perhaps this is a nod to his depression? – ‘Fans expect you to click into gear straight away and it isn’t that easy,’ says Murphy. People think footballers just tend to follow the money, but there is emotion as well. Everyone was saying, “Are you all right?” and I was saying, “Yeah, fine.” But maybe I wasn’t. You live and learn.’ (http://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/sep/18/charltonathletic)
Hates taking penalties apparently. Murphy was always good at penalties, wasn’t he?
Its not particularly clear whether TSF ended up taking a lot.
http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/articles/the-secret-footballer/15584/ozil-penalty-criticism-far-from-spot-on/
”
For the record, I hate penalties. I’ve hated taking them ever since I was a kid. I was one of those kids who had no confidence in anything that I did while knowing deep down that I was really good at football.
And so, missing a penalty – a “free kick” that everybody expects you to score with ease – seemed like a sure-fire way of demolishing the faith and confidence that people had in my football ability. As a result, I tried my hardest not to take them.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get through a professional career of nearly 15 years without taking a penalty, especially if you are technically gifted, which I consider myself to be. Because the only reason for not taking a penalty in that scenario is that you have no balls.
And I have balls.
“
16)
he did play for Fulham on the 3rd of April 2011, he was subbed off for etuhu
Danny Mills has done quite a bit of punditry. Maybe I read it wrong, but it does seem as though TSF has done some punditry work.
I still think TSF will throw a liitle red herring here or there or exaggerate a point to be more or less true to help hide his identity.
My gut feeling is that TSF is Danny Murphy after reading the book. TSF knew a lot of ‘big time’ players pretty well it seems, and I’m not sure Kitson would’ve to be honest.
Nah. the guy who wants the ball played to his feet is Dimitar Berbatov which also makes sense. He said it in his latest book.
Murphy is the only one on the list that played the Paul Scholes role, and he started his career at a lower club. Has to be him.
Has to be Murphy. With regards to punditry, since he retired he’s been on MOTD regularly. At the time he referenced his punditry he probably just meant he hoped to move into the field or had it lined up. Better candidate than Dave Kitson imo, Kitson wasn’t big enough or as well connected to be TSF. Murphy has far more premier league and international experience.
STOP PRESS. In the new book there is a paragraph:
‘I see those who have lost everything, players who have put a shift in and been hammered off the back of one bad deal brought about by retrospective government legislation. I was told that Danny Murphy owes 2.5 million to the taxman’
Is this not the exact end to the first book?????
Bit late to the party I guess, but No. 23 definitely happened. Was listening to him talk about it on talksport the other night on the way home. Charlton to Tottenham