Norwich City can no longer be viewed as the winners of £12m Newcastle United deal | OneFootball

Newcastle United have had the last laugh with their deal to sign Jacob Murphy from Norwich City

The Norwich City academy has produced its fair share of talent down the years, and perhaps no one more talented than Jacob Murphy, who to this day is still playing in the Premier League.

Muprhy plies his trade for Newcastle United and remains a regular, not just a bit-part player, in Eddie Howe's side and it's easy to forget that he's still only 29 years old, largely due to the fact his first team debut came in 2014 for the Canaries.

One strange quirk of his emergence at Carrow Road was that he broke through at the same time as his twin brother, Josh, who also still plays to a high level, turning out for Portsmouth in the Championship.

It's Jacob who's had the better career of the two, although it hasn't always been that way as he spent the large chunk of his early career with Norwich bouncing around on loan, and even at Newcastle he's spent time on loan with other clubs.

Still, Newcastle had seen enough from his Norwich spell to stump up a reported £12m to bring him to Tyneside back in 2017, which to this day remains among the biggest transfer feesNorwich City have received.

Jacob Murphy had a tumultuous start to his Newcastle United career

To say the start of Muprhy's Newcastle career was tumultuous would probably be an understatement, as he struggled to make the step up from the Championship to the Premier League.

The 2016/17 ended with Muprhy notching up 16 goal involvements for the Canaries, but his first season in the North East saw him clock up just two, and much of the same struggles were endured in the first half of the 18/19 season too.

He spent the second half of the season on loan at West Brom in the second tier, where again he did precious little, but he made a name for himself the season after when spending the season with Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, contributing to 15 goals.

At that point, many Newcastle fans believed that was the confidence boost he needed to unlock his true potential in the top-flight, but more struggles on Tyneside when he returned must've had them wondering just what had gone wrong.

It was at that point that Norwich City looked to be the real beneficiaries of this deal, and the £12m fee they'd recouped looked to have been an absolute masterstroke from the Canaries board, not least because the money raised from his sale helped facilitate the arrivals of several players who proved key in Norwich's promotion soon after.

Eddie Howe's arrival tossed Jacob Murphy a Newcastle United lifeline

It looked fairly bleak for Murphy at Newcastle at that point, but Eddie Howe's arrival midway through the 21/22 season changed things for the winger, although he did have to wait a little to reap the ultimate rewards.

There's been gradual improvements from Murphy every single season under Howe, to the point where he's now a first team regular and one of the first names on the teamsheet every week.

He's on course to post his best-ever season as far as contributing to goals is concerned in the Premier League, and he has developed as a footballer sensationally over the last three years.

The most telling thing about how highly Newcastle value Murphy is that, despite being one of the richest clubs in the world, they've never gone out and signed a world-class winger to replace Murphy, because in Howe's eyes, they have one right there.

To sign a player right now to make the same impact as Murphy is making, Newcastle would be looking at parting with the best part of £40m, so their £12m investment back in 2017 has ultimately come up trumps, and they have to be viewed as the ultimate winners from this deal.