Eight-figure Cardiff City star was big loser from Mick McCarthy appointment | OneFootball

Cardiff City will regret that the likes of Oxford United and Portsmouth saw the attacker’s best years

The biggest transfer of Josh Murphy’s career saw him depart Norwich City for Cardiff City in 2018, but the Bluebirds would never see the best of him.

The winger was signed with Neil Warnock in the dugout, before he was replaced by Neil Harris, and while Murphy showed flashes of brilliance under both, he never reached what we now know to be his top form.

However, it was the third manager of his Cardiff stint, Mick McCarthy, who truly spelled the end for Murphy at the Welsh club.

The awkward fit of the pair would lead to Murphy’s release, and leave Cardiff fans with regret when they saw what he was capable of further down the line.

Cardiff went big on Josh Murphy following promotion to the Premier League

There was no lack of faith in Murphy’s abilities in 2018, his 10-goal-involvement season for Norwich City prompting the Bluebirds to spend £11m on the winger.

He was, in fact, their first signing following Cardiff’s promotion to the Premier League, tasked with helping the club with the transition.

"He can play an instrumental part in helping us to stay in the Premier League and I know he's looking forward to the challenge,” Warnock said at the time.

Three goals and two assists in his first season was not quite the impact either party would have dreamed of, but given Cardiff were ultimately relegated that season, it’s not the worst return and Murphy displayed flashes of real brilliance at the start of City's Premier League campaign.

Murphy faded at Cardiff under McCarthy

His second season with the club, most of which played under Harris, was Murphy’s best for Cardiff, notching five goals and registering three assists, but it still wasn’t the promise the winger had arrived with, nor that he would go on to achieve.

Alongside the likes of Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Bobby Decordova-Reid and Kenneth Zohore - the latter two of whom both left that summer - Murphy had been expected to enjoy a starring role for Cardiff back in the Championship, though while he never stopped short of executing moments of real brilliance, injuries, inconsistency and, rightly or wrongly, a lack of real faith from any of his post-Warnock managers all prevented him from truly realising his potential in Wales and becoming a consistent, formidable attacking force.

And the arrival of McCarthy in January 2021 was the final nail in the coffin.

Often deployed in an unfamiliar second-striker role behind Kieffer Moore under McCarthy, an already turbulent spell plummeted further for Murphy, so much so that he was loaned to Preston North End that summer.

At Deepdale, he made just 12 Championship appearances, all from the bench, without registering a goal involvement.

"They had an opportunity to showcase what they could do," then-Preston boss Ryan Lowe said about Murphy and Izzy Brown, explaining why both had stopped training with the club as early as April. "I have high standards, and unfortunately, they didn't meet those standards.”

Cardiff took a similar view, releasing Murphy that summer, bringing a difficult four years to an end.

Josh Murphy has shown his true potential late in his career

The winger then pitched up at Oxford United and, following a quiet debut season, burst into life in 2023/24, registering 10 goal involvements in the regular League One, helping bag a spot in the play-offs.

It was in the season finale, against Bolton Wanderers at Wembley Stadium, that Murphy would mark his return to his best form, notching the two decisive goals in the U's 2-0 win to send the side to the Championship.

That earned him a move to Portsmouth, also in the Championship, for the 2024/25 season.

At 30 years old, it would end as his best to date, seeing him score 7 goals and provide another 14 assists, proving to McCarthy, Lowe, and any other manager who doubted him what talent was locked inside of him.

Murphy proves that players are not always destined to perform under any manager, that sometimes they just need the right environment and guidance to thrive.

Cardiff fans will live to regret that McCarthy and Murphy happened to cross paths at the Cardiff City Stadium, as, in another timeline, under a better-suited manager, they may have seen the best of the winger the club put so much faith and resource into.