Leaking stories to the media is one of football's worst crimes, claims Murphy

 Danny Murphy insists if a player has leaked the story of Roy Hodgson’s ‘monkey’ comments it is one of the worst crimes he can commit – but he admits there is no such thing as a closed dressing room.

Just 36 hours after qualifying for the World Cup finals in Brazil, the England manager has found himself at the centre of a media storm for using the term ‘monkey’ in an anecdote in his half-time team talk during the 2-0 win over Poland.

Hodgson was using the tale of two astronauts to illustrate the point he wanted the ball to be fed out to Andros Townsend as often as possible, and the Spurs star has responded to the controversy by tweeting that he took no offence at the remarks.

"It’s worse than telling teacher. Within a dressing room in football it’s frowned upon, it’s really, really thought of negatively"

Danny Murphy

Hodgson, however, still finds himself being vilified and Murphy admits there is no worse sin in football than speaking out of school to the media.

Speaking on the Colin Murray Show, he said: “What’s remarkable about this story is that if we believe what we’ve heard that a player has taken time out to phone a journalist and say he’s upset, I find that bizarre.

“I also find it bizarre they haven’t actually taken the comments in the context [intended]. That shows a lack of intelligence on their part and makes them look silly really. And of course it’s the classic, ‘England are doing well, let’s try and rain on their parade’.

“It depends on his relationship with the journalist, whether he’s a good friend with him and talks to him anyway and he’s said it in a flippant way and the journalist has taken hold of it and thought, ‘I’ll run with this’.

“What’s important for me is to try find out and get clarity on exactly what was said, because whatever was said it’s not offensive to me.

“It [the identity of the person responsible] will soon become common knowledge, if it isn’t already.

“It’s worse than telling teacher. Within a dressing room in football it’s frowned upon, it’s really, really thought of negatively.

“Sometimes stories get to journalists through agents or though friends maybe, but not directly.

“What’s really worrying about this particular one is this journalist who has written the story doesn’t talk about who told him and doesn’t actually give specific words and how they were used, he just uses a quick reference to it. There’s not enough [detail]. Give the exact detail if a player is telling you what’s happened. It’s still a bit vague for me.”

Murphy does admit, however, it is almost impossible to maintain the sanctity of a changing room.

“There is no such thing as a closed dressing room where a secret will remain inside it,” he added. “I don’t say that because players are always negative and trying to cause problems, I say that because human nature is to talk about things.

“Players find out the team usually a day before or the morning of the game and they have to tell family and friends so they can sort out tickets for the match and before you know it you could tell a brother, an agent, a friend, whoever it might be, and things just get out. It’s not always because of a negative intention.

“Of course there are times when players do do it for that reason because they’re angry or frustrated at not playing, or they have a grievance with the manager, but there’s no such thing as a closed dressing room. Things will always get out. Training ground bust-ups are the same.

“The other thing people forget is you always look at the players [in these instances], but there is also a huge staff at every club these days – coaching staff, medical staff, even people like kit men, security guys, they see things, you know, so it doesn’t always have to be the players.

“I know Roy well, he’s an intelligent, articulate man. If he used a quick line of it [the astronauts tale] and one of the players wasn’t aware of the story and wasn’t aware of its context then initially there might be a ‘whoa, wheat was that about’? But once it’s been explained to someone who didn’t know the story, and some of those young lads might not, then that would be fine. But even if it was said in a simple format I still don’t see the problem.

“Roy is a very intelligent man. It’s very much like him to reference a famous story or a famous quote in one of his talks in the dressing room. It’s what he does. He’s very well read, he’s bright, he doesn’t say things stupidly off the cuff.”

Much of the comment on social media forums has suggested the identity of the culprit – if it is a player – will become public knowledge if he is not selected for the next international squad, but Murphy claims there is still a way back for the guilty party.

He added: “Knowing Roy as I do he’s not somebody to hold a grudge. I think he’d think much more highly of someone going to him and saying, ‘it was me, I made a mistake, it shouldn’t have happened and I apologise’ and Roy would forget about it and judge him purely on the football.

“Of course if that wasn’t the case, and like any man you thought someone in your camp was going against you and not prepared to hold his hands up to the mistake, then there might be some punishment. But Roy certainly isn’t someone who would jeopardise the team and the atmosphere in the squad by alienating a player, especially if he had the courage to speak to him about it.”