Jacob Murphy will most certainly be remembered as one of the unsung heroes of the current Newcastle United period, but he did not have an easy road to establishing himself in the Magpies’ squad.

Years before Liverpool boss Arne Slot praised the wideman as one of the key reasons Alexander Isak was so prolific at St James’ Park, he struggled to break into Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle team.

Murphy was on the fringes of action during his first season after signing for £12 million from Norwich City in 2017, before making only nine Premier League appearances in the 2018/19 season, which resulted in him being loaned out to Championship side West Brom for the rest of the year.

Despite strong performances at the Hawthorns for a team that finished in the play-offs, and Benitez’s departure that summer, Murphy was still not in Newcastle’s plans under new manager Steve Bruce, and he was loaned out again.

Sheffield Wednesday benefited, and his impressive 2019/20 season at Hillsborough set him up to become one of the Premier League’s most underappreciated players in the coming years.

Jacob Murphy recovered his form on loan at Sheffield Wednesday.

Murphy was regarded as one of the EFL’s brightest young talents before joining St James’ Park, tearing up League One with Coventry City and then the Championship with Norwich in back-to-back seasons from 2015 to 2017.

He scored eight goals and assisted eight others during his final year with the Canaries, indicating that he was ready to go on to the Premier League.

Murphy needed to find his form two years later, and he found it while on loan at Sheffield Wednesday.

The then-24-year-old made an excellent first impression on Hillsborough fans, scoring on his debut in a South Yorkshire derby victory over Barnsley, but he struggled to settle in with his new team throughout the first half of the season.

He made a few goal contributions, but he went into the new year with only two goals and one assist, and he was left on the bench for two impressive to-nil wins over Nottingham Forest and Bristol City, which put Wednesday third at the halfway point of the season.

Wednesday fell off a cliff in the second half of the season, winning only four of their remaining 23 games and finishing just eight points above the bottom three in 16th place, but there was one bright spot in Gary Monk’s side: Murphy’s resurrection.

The wideman scored three goals in the following months, including one in a 2-0 victory over Leeds United in January. When the season was interrupted due to COVID-19, Murphy had five league goals, but when it resumed in June, he found another level.

Wednesday won twice in the final nine games of the season, but Murphy did his part to attempt to change that. He scored four goals in his final five games for the team and assisted four more times in empty stadiums.

Murphy finished the season with nine goals and six assists in only 24 starts, which was an excellent return that put him back in Steve Bruce’s sights for Premier League games the following season.

Without his loan experience at Sheffield Wednesday, Jacob Murphy might not have developed into a Champions League player.

That stint at Hillsborough helped Murphy return to Newcastle, where he was a useful squad player for the most part until the 2024/25 season, when he scored eight goals and assisted 12 times to help the Magpies qualify for the Champions League while also playing a key role in their EFL Cup victory.

There’s no denying that the wideman is a valuable asset at St James’ Park, but when a second Championship loan deal was approved just 40 games into his Newcastle career, it appeared like his time with the Magpies was almost over.

Murphy was aided by Sheffield Wednesday on his road to playing in the Champions League for his parent club, but the winger’s contributions at Hillsborough were also significant – it was a win-win loan arrangement.

He was a solid squad option in a promotion-chasing club at the start of the season, and when things got bad, he chipped in with some crucial goal contributions to keep Wednesday from falling into relegation trouble.

The Owls undoubtedly won the jackpot with this loan move, and Newcastle and Murphy will benefit in the coming years as well.