This season has made me hate football -Tuda

The Cayman Islands international, who played a total of 63 games for the club, was devastated to be released at the end of last season and claims that he must now re-establish his passion for the game.

“This season has made me hate football. I have to develop a love for it again. I’ve got to get a passion for it back because it became just a job. It’s not even for love or pleasure anymore for me.”

And what a change that feeling is for the happy-go-lucky Caribbean keeper who brought his contagious smile and friendly nature to the club when he joined in the summer of 2007. He soon asserted his place as number one on the pitch too and quickly won many fans at Mourneview Park through his outstanding saves, unrivalled ability to claim crosses anywhere inside the box and, of course, his outstanding rapport with supporters.

It is with those fans that Murphy’s heart lies and the 29-year-old says that he will never forget the support he received during his time at the club.

“The first thing they (the fans) should know is that it wasn’t my choice to leave at all,” he began emotionally.

“I really love the club and I didn’t want to move. When Linfield came in for me, I could have gone to Linfield but I didn’t take that opportunity because I love Glenavon and I wanted to stay there. In my heart, I didn’t feel like I got a fair go at it. The most important thing is to give the fans thanks. I want to thank them for making me feel at home, showing me that love and getting behind me whenever I didn’t even do well or had made a mistake. They got behind me and supported me.

“They knew I had problems with my kicking but they never rubbed that in my face. I got better at it and that was because they gave me the confidence that I could do it. I remember the first day that I got back in the team and kicked the ball for the first time and it went over the halfway line. The supporters cheered and I was so happy because they knew that I was working hard at it.

“I don’t have a personal relationship with the club, I have a personal relationship with the fans. My wife doesn’t come to Tesco with me anymore because I stand talking to them all too much!”

However much support and kind words that were given to the goalkeeper from fans, there was only one man’s opinion that mattered and boss Marty Quinn decided that Murphy wasn’t part of his plans to restore Glenavon to their former glories; something which Tuda finds hard to accept:

“I stayed on last year when I had a feeling that what happened this season was going to happen. Marty said to me that it was going to be 50:50 between me and Andrew Plummer and the best goalkeeper was the one that was going to play. I don’t understand why I was dropped when I was. I came in and got a few man of the match awards and also got the club’s Player of the Month for November. I picked up the award at a home game and then found out that I wasn’t even in the squad that day.

“It didn’t seem like it was 50:50. Marty brought his goalkeeper in and he was going to take care of him. That’s how football works sometimes.

“There is nothing else I could have done, I did the job whenever I came in and I was dropped. It was a knock on my confidence and I realised that it was just his opinion that counted. All the fans that came to me and said that I should be in there didn’t matter.”

Indeed during his six game spell in the starting eleven during November, Murphy won the club’s official Man of the Match and was named as the ‘MAIL’ Man of the Match twice in succession against Crusaders and Glentoran.

However, he was then put on the transfer list as Andrew Plummer came back into the side – and has performed well ever since – but the move distressed Murphy who says he fought in vain to be a part of Marty Quinn’s plans.

“Whenever I was doing well and then got put on the transfer list, it was like a knife to my heart,” he said.

“I would like to know why. Yeah, my kicking was kind of rough sometimes but nobody scored from it. Yeah, I got lucky sometimes but you can’t use that against me.

“That was when I realised that I would never be one of Marty’s players. He told us that he always looked after his players and I strived to become one of them but it never happened.”

Murphy’s lack of starts in the Glenavon team this season has cost him a place in the Cayman Islands international squad for the upcoming Caribbean Cup and that is something that wrangles with the goalkeeper.

“The Caribbean Cup is coming up and I haven’t got a call-up because I haven’t been playing. They’re not going to pay a lot of money to bring me back home to play whenever I haven’t been playing lately. I want to get back on the national team as soon as possible.”

For now, Murphy will have to look away from Mourneview Park in order to get that place back, and he says he has held talks with other clubs ahead of next season but says he still hopes to return to Glenavon before he hangs up his gloves.

“It’s still up in the air. There is nothing concrete yet but I’ve had talks with a couple of Premiership clubs and also a couple of lower league clubs. I came half way around the world to play at the highest standard that I can play at and I know that I can play in the Premiership.

“I want to be back at Glenavon under different circumstances and I look forward to ending my career there. It is definitely my home club and I really fell in love with the fans there. I’ll always be a Glenavon person at heart.”

For now though, its goodbye from him, but a fond farewell to the man who found a unique place in the hearts of many Blues’ fans.