Newcastle's winless start to the Premier League season continued on Saturday as they were held to a 3-3 draw by Brentford.

The Magpies are without a win in any of their 12 league matches this term and are firmly rooted to the bottom of the table as it stands.

Howler

One player who has struggled this season is right-back/right winger Jacob Murphy. He has averaged a dismal WhoScored rating of 6.48 across 10 appearances and has been a howler of a signing by the club overall since his move in 2017, with Martin Keown even accusing him of cheating against Aston Villa earlier this year, when we went down all too easily in the penalty area.

The Arsenal legend said: “It’s so wrong. The referee needs to punish that. It’s simulation. It’s annoying. He is trying to gain an advantage. He is trying to cheat the referee."

Sky Sports reported at the time of the deal that Newcastle agreed to pay Norwich, a Championship club at the time, £12m for their academy product. This was off the back of him managing nine goals and eight assists in all competitions for the Canaries in the 2016/17 campaign.

He then made 25 Premier League appearances in his first season at the Tyneside club and ended up with one goal and one assist to his name. The 2018/19 campaign did not see him fare any better, as he failed to contribute to a goal in 13 matches in all competitions before being shipped out on loan to West Brom, and then to Sheffield Wednesday for the following season.

Murphy ended his spell at Hillsborough, with nine goals and six assists in the Championship, earning himself a shot at redemption under Steve Bruce in the summer of 2020. He made 31 appearances in all competitions for the Magpies last term, with 14 of those coming at right wing-back or right-back.

This brings us back to the present, where he has been struggling, as mentioned previously, and his value at the time of writing (23/11/21) sits at £4.5m as per Transfermarkt. His value has, in theory, dropped by £7.5m since his arrival at the club in 2017, despite him heading into what should be the peak years of his career at the age of 26.

Therefore, he has been a howler of a signing who has not made a significant impact on the pitch or increased in value to make the club a profit. However, it is worth saying that he still has time to turn things around, and hopefully he can yet go on to become an important player for the Magpies in the Premier League.

AND in other news, Imagine him & Wilson: NUFC can seal dream deal in "unbelievably important" 38-goal gem...