With Murray off to Brighton today, Tommo looks back at the sale of Murray and his time at Spotland over the past twelve months or so.
Rochdale fan’s fears became reality today when it was confirmed that striker Glenn Murray had left the club. The ex Carlisle striker was drafted in on loan by then manager Steve Parkin last season. He originally signed on loan with a return of 4 goals from 14 appearances being enough to convince Parkin that he was worth signing.
And he certainly was.
Murray is different to any other striker at the club. He’s such a talent and his all round game is what has always impressed me. You hear people talking about target men and strikers that are good at certain aspects of their game, but with Murray you see a striker who does the lot and does it well.
22 goals from 46 appearances is the return we’ve had from Murray excluding his loan spell… and for me, he is a better striker than Holt and Lambert. When you look back at strikers and the goals they scored all three gave us plenty to celebrate about. However, with Holt you would always worry about how often he would be suspended and with Lambert, many would get annoyed at the lack of work rate he would produce at times.
Aside from all the goals, even the ones at Bury and Stockport, I have learnt something else from Murray’s spell at Spotland. I learnt that players sometimes do need time to settle in at clubs, and sometimes it can take longer than you’d want for players to recapture their earlier form. But as the manager will say, you can only fix a bad run of form by playing through it. And as a fan, that’s something I’ll always keep in mind before I listen to the moaning at Perkins playing on the wing.
But football is a game where your luck can change over night and if the opportunity is there for Murray to kick on with his career having sparked it back to live at Spotland. Then fair play to him, let’s hope there’s more strikers looking at Murray’s success at Spotland and that they too see Spotland as a place where they can get their careers back on track.
But the most important part now, with no disrespect to Murray at all, is that we move on, starting from tomorrow, with a new look strike partnership. Thanks a lot Glenn for being part of what’s been an absolutely superb last twelve months as a Rochdale fan and long may that continue.