Danny Murphy smiles at the suggestion he was a footballing 'thinker'; an intelligent player with an eye for a pass before cultured midfielders became fashionable.

"I think they just say that for players who don't have pace!" he jokes.

After 20 years and 599 league appearances for the likes of Crewe Alexandra, Liverpool and Fulham, Murphy, now 36, has retired. Yet there are still more challenges ahead.

Murphy will complete his UEFA 'B' Licence in November and, coupled with his growing profile as a media pundit, has a firm desire to go into management and coaching.

He finds it odd some people still think it has to be one or the other, believing the best managers are generally the best coaches.

Gerard Houllier at Liverpool was the exception: a manager who dictated to other coaches but still attended every session.

"I'm sure that managing is easier than coaching," adds Murphy.

"Being able to put on good sessions and improve a team, that's tough and that's what I want to do.

"I was a thinker and a talker but I think I became better at helping others around me in a team shape. That's a rare quality in players now, that leadership. Everyone gets on with their own job a little bit more now and I think teams miss that."

"Think of Liverpool with Carra (Jamie Carragher) at the back, screaming. He's a leader and a winner. Joe Hart's got the same great presence and quality."

"After being in the game and learning from managers as long as I have, I feel I could be good at coaching and managing. I've got a lot to learn but I've got more to give."

There were three managers who really shaped Murphy's career: former Liverpool boss Houllier, Dario Gradi at Crewe and Roy Hodgson, who made the midfielder his captain at Fulham.

Murphy counts himself especially lucky he encountered Gradi, who was 'like a dad' to him and used to stop training sessions to draw attention to his trainee 'having a strop' if he didn't get the pass he wanted.

"It took months, rather than weeks," admits Murphy, "But I stopped moaning."

Houllier inherited Murphy at Liverpool, but the Frenchman sent him back to Crewe on loan to test his desire after 18 months at Anfield.

It was a move that Murphy admits 'changed his career'.

"I thought I had made it a bit," he says. "I went from £200 a week to £3,000, but looking back I was a bit cocky. Liverpool was the dream.

"I was a season ticket-holder at Liverpool for years as a kid. It was just classic schoolboy stuff."

Houllier brought him back down to earth again after Liverpool won the treble - the League, FA and UEFA Cups - in 2001. Murphy thought his 10 goals and 47 appearances that season would be rewarded with a new contract, but instead Houllier told him to lose three quarters of a stone.

After a gruelling pre-season, Murphy made his England debut the following November.

"Some of the best moments of my career were wearing that Liverpool shirt and winning trophies," says Murphy.

"I think about the Manchester United goals, getting the winner at Everton (in April 2003) and playing in big games in big stadiums all over Europe."

It was disappointing to leave Liverpool. I could have gone to Everton under David Moyes, but I didn't want the Liverpool fans to think badly of me."

After spells at Charlton Athletic and Tottenham Hotspur, Murphy joined Lawrie Sanchez's Fulham in August 2007.

He thought the big European nights were behind him but then Hodgson arrived at Craven Cottage in December, marking the beginning of a relationship with the 'most caring and articulate manager' Murphy has ever had.

After Murphy scored against Portsmouth to keep Fulham in the Premier League on the final day of the 2008 season, the club finished seventh the following year and then reached the 2010 Europa League final.

Murphy said: "Those few years we had a resilience and togetherness in that squad that was very rare. That's why losing the Europa League final against Atletico Madrid was the biggest disappointment I had ever had in my career, even more than being injured at the 2002 World Cup."

There are not many regrets, but Murphy feels he 'probably left Fulham a year too early' when his contract ran out in 2012. 

And so to Blackburn Rovers, on 'good money' and a two-year contract, but a club where the constant change of personnel made it difficult for him to thrive.

This was not the finale Murphy wanted, nor did he feel a desire to extend his playing career by moving down the divisions or to continue living away from his home in Surrey with wife Joanna and their children Mya and Ethan.

"It wasn't about finances," he says, "it was about location and enjoying playing a certain way. Otherwise, what's the point?"

Murphy's 'football philosophy' is clearly already in place. Perhaps the 'thinking footballer' tag wasn't so wide of the mark, after all.

Source: Daily Mail