Josh Murphy: Portsmouth winger signs new contract until summer 2028

New contracts don’t come more deserved than this one. Murphy had two years remaining on his existing deal and potentially a third via a club option, the fact this move has been made shows just how key he is to Pompey. Something only underlined when he’s missed matches this season.

Murphy is one of the best players in the Championship and Pompey’s key man. Defenders just cannot deal with him one-on-one, he scores, he assists and he gets fans off their feet.

There was speculation linking him with a move away at the end of the summer transfer window, however it’s understood no club made a concerted effort to sign him and certainly no one showed any inclination to pay what would be required to prise him away.

20 years ago, Championship promotion hunters and even perhaps Premier League clubs would have been chasing him.

It seems now clubs don’t want to pay money for a 30 year-old even though he would make virtually every starting XI in this division better.