Glenn Murray is supporting Small Business Saturday, which encourages people to use their local independent stores
Saturday 1 December 2018 09:16, UK
Brighton striker Glenn Murray sat down with Johnny Phillips to discuss his and the club's rise from the lower leagues to the Premier League.
"For a striker, the goals never move. Whatever division you're playing in." Glenn Murray has taken that simple fact with him on his long journey to the top of English football. From knocking around in non-league football at his hometown club Workington, and then moving to neighbouring Barrow, before making his Football League debut as a promoted player with Carlisle.
"Whether it's Sunday League, League Two or The Conference, the goals don't move," Murray adds. "So as long as you hit that target and make the goalkeeper work, that's my job. As long as I hit the target I'm pretty happy. If the goalkeeper pulls a fantastic save off then he's earned his money for the day hasn't he?"
Now 35, Murray has just signed a new one-year contract extension with Brighton that will take him through to the end of the 2019/20 season. His first spell at the club - over a decade ago - came when the Seagulls were in a completely different place. Brighton were without a permanent home when he first joined in January 2008, renting the athletics venue Withdean Stadium, and they were competing in League One.
"Funnily enough they never showed me the Withdean before I signed," he explains. "We went into some offices up in town. We did eventually get to the Withdean about seven or eight days later, but even the training facilities weren't great. I was in the League One winning team that were going to move into the Amex, so I had tours around the stadium and I knew the club were going in that direction.
"Unfortunately I left just before they went in, but to come back [in 2016] to a ready-made Premier League club, so to speak, with a brand new stadium and a brand new training ground, it was so eye-opening.
"What really struck me was the amount of staff. At the Withdean, we'd know all the staff on first name terms. Then I walked into the Amex and it was just hundreds of people, like, 'Wow, this place really has changed'."
Murray has also noticed the regeneration of a city's support, which is perhaps as strong a legacy as anything the club has achieved on the pitch. "I think one thing I can see, and it's a strange way to look at it, is that when the club went to the Withdean they lost a lot of the younger generation of fans," he says.
"Maybe their dads didn't want to take them because there wasn't a roof there and they didn't want to get wet. A lot of that generation were spoilt on Chelsea and Arsenal because it was easy to get to London. Whereas now, we're at the Amex and we've reached the Premier League I see a lot more kids growing up with Brighton shirts on them than I did when I first joined."
"Now we're at the Amex and we've reached the Premier League I see a lot more kids growing up with Brighton shirts on them than I did when I first joined."
Murray is chatting at The Flour Pot on Brighton's seafront. It is a regular haunt of his when he is out and about with his young family. He popped into the coffee shop as part of Small Business Saturday, which is being supported by Amex, aimed at encouraging people to use their local independent stores. Cumbrian born and bred, he admits that settling in Brighton has been easy.
"Yeah my wife is from here, so I'm kind of stuck. I remember the first time I signed for the club I was told, 'You'll end up staying down here', and I was like, 'Nah, that'll never happen', being a northern boy and all that, but funnily enough it's come true. There are always lots of places you can drop in and grab a coffee, there's always something going on, or some sort of festival, so it is a nice vibrant place to live."
Murray has never taken anything for granted during his long career and is as thankful for a first-team place today as he was during his formative years as a teenager trying to make his mark in the game.
"I grew up desperate to be a professional footballer and I was willing to do anything to be one," he says. "I can remember playing for Carlisle and just running around like a headless chicken telling the others boys not to worry, that I'd do their running for them. I was just so eager and so keen and desperate to be a footballer that I did that. And luckily I've developed from that, although I may not run about as much as that these days."
So how much longer can Murray continue to perform at the highest level and does he still feel there is something to prove? "Unfortunately you've always go to prove yourself. If I stop scoring goals I don't play, it's as simple as that. I've got that pressure I put on myself and then obviously there's players sitting in the dressing room, raring to go and eager to take my position. I'm sure we've got a department looking at other players around Europe.
"Who's the next striker? Who's the next centre-half? The scouts are out there looking for the next player, the next generation. That's how it is, the club wants to progress and become an established Premier League club and I understand that and I appreciate that.
"I know it won't last forever. And I've played in the lower leagues and to be here now I appreciate the full stadiums and everything about it to be honest. I want to continue to play and score as many goals as possible for as long as possible.
"But it's those small steps, that's how I've got to take it, not so much week by week but month by month, then year by year, and see where it takes me. If you'd have asked me that question three years ago I would never have said I'd be sat here speaking to you today."
You can see more of Johnny Phillips interview with Glenn Murray on Soccer Saturday from 12pm.
