Boss Mick McCarthy believes there is no chance of former striker Daryl Murphy returning to the Blues on loan from Newcastle United in January. The Town manager, who will target a replacement for the 33-year-old in January, has no regrets about allowing the Irishman to move on, despite admitting it has had an impact on the season with his side having scored only 17 times in their first 19 games.

Murphy has made only one start and one sub appearance, both in the EFL Cup, since moving to the Magpies, a calf injury having hampered him during the opening few months of his spell but despite this, and contrary to rumour, McCarthy doesn't anticipate him being made available and rejoining the Blues.

“No, and I say that speaking on behalf of [Newcastle manager] Rafa [Benitez]," McCarthy said.

"Because if you’re going for promotion, it doesn’t matter what you’re spending on the players, if you’re at the top of the league and you spend zillions and you’re looking like you’re going to earn zillions, why would you even consider getting shot of a striker that might score you a winner at some stage? If you’re in Newcastle’s position and can afford to keep them all.

“They just pick them at random - ‘He’s playing today’. No, no chance, he won’t be going anywhere.

“Should I say there’s always a place for him here, just in case? I’ll put my sandwich board up!”

After it was pointed out that Murphy could score against some of the Magpies’ promotion rivals if he were to return to Town, the Blues boss added: “I know, could do, but I’m double guessing a lot of people if that was the case.

“And there’s whether he’d want to come back, of course. There’s that as well. He’s had his time, he’s had his success here.

“And he’s left and he’s got his big move and it looks like he’s going to the Premier League, I think that would be [reason to stay where he is].

“I’m always open to suggestions from Rafa if he fancies that, he might lend me a few others as well so we can help beat all the teams around him.”

McCarthy says he has no regrets about selling Murphy in a £3 million deal which was completed three days before the August transfer window closed with Town unable to sign a replacement before the deadline.

“No, I don’t,” he insisted. “It was the right deal for the club. Are we missing him now? Yes we are. He scored 27 goals once.

“I remember when I joined here nobody was bothered whether he signed or not. In fact they were happy to see him go. I think when I signed him it was a bit, ‘Oh dear, Daryl Murphy’.

“Now he’s gone and because he had that one blistering season everybody will look at that and will blame that.

“That is a good deal for the club, we should be able to invest that money at some stage to get another striker. We’ll see.

“But it was going to be almost impossible to keep him at 33 with the wages he was going to be paid and the contract he was going to get and the club he was going to.

“It would have been hard for him to play here, to motivate him and play after all of that.

“It was the right deal but, yes, we’re missing him. So we’ve got to get somebody else who is going to change everybody else’s mind, just like we did when Murph scored his 27. He changed everybody’s opinion.”

He admits that no one currently on the staff can fill the former Sunderland, Celtic and Waterford frontman’s boots.

“Not that can score 27 goals, no, if you’re asking me that,” McCarthy continued. “Can they get in [the team] and score goals, yes they can. Reg [Luke Varney] has done it, Leon Best hasn’t yet.

“But are they going to score 27 goals? You look through their history. I’m being asked a question and I’m not going to say anything damning against them, but I doubt either of them have scored 27 throughout their careers.

“So that’s not going to happen and it’s not going to happen with the way we are playing at the minute and the chances we’re creating.

“But can they get in and score on Saturday? Yes they can, and that’s what’s important to me.”

He added: “We need to get goals, wherever they come from. We’ve only scored 17 and that’s not good enough. We desperately need some.”

With that in mind, McCarthy says the plan is still very much to try to sign a replacement for Murphy in January: “That’s what I’d like to do. But expectations and firm guarantees are pretty different.”

He says the money is there to make the signing - “I haven’t spent it, have I?” - referring to the Murphy fee, adding: “I would like to replace him in January. I was asked earlier about goals and whether we could replace those goals and I said I would like to replace those goals with someone, of course I would, whoever that might be.

“That is the case. Whether that’s X million pounds is another matter, but I’d like to replace the goals, of course.”

Meanwhile, McCarthy says he never progressed his interest in Dundalk winger Daryl Horgan, who reports yesterday claimed was close to joining Preston, despite watching him in action a fortnight ago.

“We looked but they’ve had everybody looking, so we didn’t take it any further than that,” he said.

Photo: Action Images

hoppy added 06:21 - Dec 9 “We looked but they've had everybody looking, so we didn't take it any further than that,” he said. Is that an air of resignation that we can't compete if the likes of Preston are showing an interest? Oh dear.
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muhrensweet4thijssen added 06:24 - Dec 9 "We looked but everyone else was looking, so we didn't take it any further than that" Or put another way. I looked and wanted him, but we couldn't compete fincancially so I was told I couldn't have him. Poor Mick what chance does he have. He is doing the best with what he's got. The footy might be poor but with the exception of home grown talent, loan players and the odd uneathering of a mings, he doesn't get anywhere near as much support as the real contenders for promotion so give the guy a bit of a break please

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trncbluearmy added 06:27 - Dec 9 “We looked but they've had everybody looking, so we didn't take it any further than that,” he said. That along with the recent Berra outburst are just so depressing. ITFC is a dying club and needs dramatic change and attitude from the top down.
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trncbluearmy added 06:32 - Dec 9 and another thing, why does McCarthy just speak in riddles nowadays? Some kind of strange northern disease? Or is it just bollicks?
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Surco72 added 07:46 - Dec 9 It is lucky for you MM that Murphy dud have one lucky season as it covered over your tactical inabilities to coach a fast flowing passing game that is prevelant in todays game , otherwise it would have been 4 seasons of the dross you produce rather than 3
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ArnieM added 07:55 - Dec 9 Thank God for that. We don't heed another "has been" in the squad. Way past his best now.
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muccletonjoe added 07:56 - Dec 9 The underlying theme here is how are we supposed to compete with no financial support. A very good question and i think more and more fans are seeing Evans as the man behind our faltering season.
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ChrisFelix added 08:26 - Dec 9 The mistake was not selling Murphy ,but setting up the team since without a target man
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CBMTOBWMMBG added 08:29 - Dec 9 Usual negativity from those commenting, no open minded-ness at all. Its quite an interesting interview. A couple of thoughts: 1) a key theme here is player power and how hard it is to keep anyone, at whatever level. Even Arsenal seem to be struggling to keep Ozil, for instance. 2) the lack of succession planning for Murphy is so disappointing, not the selling of him: this has been critical this or 4 more goals might have us in the top 8. McCarthy hints at this, but was it his fault or lack of Evans money? 3) financial support is all relative - Evans gives about £6m a year - but vs parachute money it is tiny

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Wickets added 09:35 - Dec 9 trncbluearmy i think you make a good point, why does Mick feel the need to talk in riddles ? Anybody?
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Garv added 10:07 - Dec 9 Mick seems very happy to make out no one fancied Murphy and that he took a shot and a risk by signing him. Not sure it's all that true.
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WestSussexBlue added 10:29 - Dec 9 Mick has to talk in riddles because if not it would be something like " The owner has agreed that funds are available in January but it's likely to be short change in comparison to what we need. Marcus doesn't expect to release a sufficient amount even after pocketing £3 million from the sale of Murphy. We will look who's available within our budget but otherwise we're good with Dids Reg Besty and Freddie" Same old Crap.

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cornishblu added 10:35 - Dec 9 CBMTOBWMMBG..some good points ....only one I would question is the parachute payments ...whilst v important , with the same clubs now yo yo-ing the parachute payments only affect a small amount of clubs...plenty more are getting the support without this facility so it becomes a weaker arguement than the likes of MM would have you believe (my business understanding is weak but even as a one OFF Evans posted the debt as a loss £80million not being taxed saves him @ £16m in tax payments ...corporation tax at 20%....makes his £6m contribution small fry compared to what he gains...alongside the interest that he will be earning from the "loans" he has given us ) .....teams in the past have show that great team spirit, players wanting to play for the shirt , being clear on what their responsibilities are and having the odd one or two players that can do something unusual do get promoted...however you need a manager with more than one plan , who can actually engender this spirit throughout his team , one that engages supporters and has the acumen to change a game when needed ....We all know that MM is a one trick pony , that can get teams into a fighting spirit to avoid relegation etc ....but long term plans that last more than 18 months he has always shown himself to be at a loss..........if he was astute enough he would sign three year contracts with teams, do a job, leave after 18months with a fat pay off and start the process again ....but the clue was at the beginning of the sentence COYB

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CBMTOBWMMBG added 10:52 - Dec 9 cornishblu Good comments. Re MM: to be fair to him coming 6th and 7th on low budgets was pretty good so the team spirit seems to have been pretty good. It may not "feel" amazing to fans because of course coming 6th/7th still means you lose a lot of games and have a lot of inconsistency which as a fan means a lot of disappointment mingled into the good times. Add in that last years good run was away from home in late Autumn and that means it is a long time since the majority of fans have felt momentum through a great home run. And certainly 2016 as a whole has been poor football. My sense is that MM is on another total rebuild, possibly towards a different style and younger players, but can't quite let himself do it, either because younger players aren't quite ready (likely when you look at U23 results) or misplaced loyalty to older players who to be fair have been players he could largely trust over the last few years. But its bloody hard: as long as a decent youngster comes through he'll be sold as they'll want to go (money and opportunity) e.g. Mings, and of course if they are not ready we'll get murdered and their confidence will go down.

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midastouch added 10:57 - Dec 9 Can we loan you to Newcastle instead please Mick and get Newcastle to pay 90% of your wages.
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dirtydingusmagee added 10:57 - Dec 9 just go Mick, we wont get money out of Evans,and you cant do anything with the squad you have,so lets give someone with a bit of imagination and drive a try. PLEASE
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blues1 added 12:10 - Dec 9 Cotnishblu. Would like to know where u get ur figure that Evans saved £16m in tax savings? Not a criticism of ur post, just a question. As for the loans he puts into the club? Think you'll find they are interest free.
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BackTheBlues added 12:20 - Dec 9 "Because if you're going for promotion, it doesn't matter what you're spending on the players, if you're at the top of the league and you spend zillions and you're looking like you're going to earn zillions, why would you even consider getting shot of a striker that might score you a winner at some stage?" That's it! I'm done! This is utter fckn B*llsh*t! Does that mean we're not going for promotion? We're £100m in Debt - We get a Minimum of £200m for going up and coming down! What difference would it make? Seriously in all honesty... If we spent £10m on a squad? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! It is worth a punt - £10m more is nothing!

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milliem added 16:32 - Dec 9 Town should get somebody from the hugely successful Norwich who've won have one match since I don't know when and are managed by some halfwit from Auchtermuchty.
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Carberry added 21:39 - Dec 9 Mick, you want the plaudits for signing him but not the criticism for not replacing him, totally de-railing our season. And please don't come out with that utter gibberish about our non existent strike force. Again, what do you take us for?
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blues1 added 04:40 - Dec 10 Actually cornishblu, I see what uve done. Uve divided the debt by the 20% that he would normally have to pay in corporation tax which is £16m. But he doesn't get to pay no tax at all, he only gets a percentage of relief. None of us knows what that percentage is, could be as little as 1% for all we know. But what is certain is it's nowhere near £16M
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