How Jacob Murphy went from Newcastle's £12m pariah to Alexander Isak's lethal sidekick, writes Craig Hope

The day Jacob Murphy signed for Newcastle, he joined a Rondo training drill with his new teammates. As the ball slipped under his foot and skittered into the distance, Jonjo Shelvey joked: 'Ooh, look what £12m gets you these days.'

Murphy laughed, he has always been a solid and popular character, but the comment, as his first few seasons on Tyneside unfolded, was somewhat prescient and not without ironic substance.

I was there that sunny afternoon at the Grand Carton house near Dublin, during a pre-season training camp under Rafa Benitez. It was a political moment, he was rarely not with Benitez, and Murphy's arrival from Norwich City was lost amid the background machinations. And lost was how he looked during that first campaign at St James' Park. In 28 appearances there was only one goal and one assist.

Seven years on, through loan spells at West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday, and Murphy is the supply line for the striker talked about as the best in the world. Of Alexander Isak's 19 goals this season, the winger has scored eight. In fact, all but one of Murphy's goal creations have been for the Swede.

Andy Cole had Peter Beardsley, Isak has Murphy. That may seem like an exaggeration, but in the season when Cole scored 34 Premier League goals in 1993/94 and, it was widely said, would not have been the same player without his Geordie Foil, Beardsley recorded eight assists. Murphy has matched that already in the Premier League this term.

It's not Beardsley. In the 31 years since then, Newcastle have not had a player of Beardsley's guile. They probably never will. But Murphy is Murphy, a Jack-in-the-Box who puts the ball in the box. There is something to be said in the modern game for a right-footed right-footer who, because his broader skillset is limited, adheres to the traditional principles of getting it and giving it to others, without complications.

Jacob Murphy (right) has established himself as the main supply line for Alexander Isak (center)

Murphy has enjoyed a notable rise as there are initial doubts over his £12m arrival

Eddie Howe likely to strengthen in the summer but Murphy will fight hard for his place

That's not to make his skill, it's more that Murphy knows what he is and what he isn't. A player who plays to his strengths and accepts his weaknesses is an intelligent player. With each game he earned his spot in early December and has been there ever since, Murphy is returning to the things he can't do and exploiting the things he can.

Take Saturday in Southampton. His assist for Isak's second goal could well be overlooked given what followed, the scorer's devastating first touch taking him away from his pursuers and the finish so clean and clinical. But Murphy was the manufacturer. To be that way, he had to beat a man and then find the pass Isak wanted and needed. To some, it may have seemed overkill, so fast was the delivery over the surface. But Murphy knows what his teammate can handle. Without that momentum on the ball, Isak wouldn't have been able to escape those defenders. It was with good reason that he turned and pointed at Murphy the moment the ball hit the net.

Isak has done it a lot this season, whether from Murphy's audacious forwards, which made mannequins of a group of Ipswich defenders, or the balls he seemingly so routinely rolls into the goal mouth for the striker to finish with ease. Ask Alan Shearer about the value of a winger who gives you the ball where and when you want it. He once pinned David Ginola against a locker room wall so frustrated was he with the Frenchman who made up things.

Murphy still has his own tendency to frustrate, and that goes back to the limitations that mean he'll never be Beardsley or Ginola. But with confidence comes consistency and with consistency of selection comes confidence. The 29-year-old is playing the best football of his career right now.

Why, then, will Newcastle look to spend big on a right-winger this summer? Murphy's form should not distract from the team's need for improvement in that area. In more than three years of Saudi ownership, it is the only position in which the club has not signed a single player. It remains the most obvious domain for an immediate profit.

But what Murphy has given Eddie Howe is a short-term solution and longer-term comfort, knowing that competition at the position will be strong once reinforcement arrives. And if the new man doesn't do what Murphy does, maybe Isak will have him up against a wall one day.

For now, it's the opposition defenses that are driving us up the wall. The Murphy -Isak combo, 10 goals in tandem, is the most in the top flight this season.

Just look what £12 million gets you. Quite a bit, it turns out.