Indeed, the Lasses' number 35 is thinking of living in the North East permanently and is eager to repay the fans and people of Newcastle for the warm welcome and support they've given her from the first time she pulled on the black white shirt.

Despite her tender age of 22, Murphy is wise beyond her years and already thinking of life post-football - and how she can make a lasting impact away from the game, particularly in the city she's quickly fallen in love with.

"I love working with kids," she told newcastleunited.com. "Whenever Hannah (Hawkins) brings in her little ones, I just love it.

"I'm always looking to do more with the Foundation and the local hospital. I was down there not too long ago with Kieran Trippier, and helping like that really makes me tick.

"I'm trying to kickstart my education in getting a master's degree to help me in my career after football, and I'm hoping that can involve working with children.

"If we're finished in the afternoon for training during the week, I really want to be helping the Foundation and going into the children's hospitals as often as possible."

Murphy moved to the United States in 2021 to attend college at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and play for the North Carolina Tar Heels, then moved to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, where she began helping out in a children's hospital alongside her studies and training schedule.

"During my last year in America, I volunteered at a children's hospital for an entire semester," she explained. "To this day, that is the one thing in my life that has come close to my love for football. It was such a pinch-me moment in terms of finding that love for something outside of football.

"How I explain it to my parents all the time is that I don't necessarily want to be a nurse, but I just want to be a little kid's best friend in hospital.

"I want to make sure they've got someone to chat to and someone that can allow their parents to speak to and give them some respite.

"There's something about distracting kids from what they're going through, and if you can just give them ten minutes away from their hard life, that's an amazing thing to do.

"I feel like it can give you a lot of gratitude and realisation of what some people are going through, especially with kids being a lot more honest, so don't necessarily understand what they're going through all the time.

"It's such a pure way of looking at life, being able to make them laugh and smile in tough times, it's something I want to help them with and get through."

Murphy was handed a Chelsea Women debut by Emma Hayes at the age of 16, and played and trained with the likes of Fran Kirby, Millie Bright and Sophie Ingle.

"I was still very young when I made my debut for Chelsea, and it was such a competitive squad," she recalled.

"I don't think I'd say I underestimated the squad we had at the time, but I was young and so sometimes I'd get frustrated when I wasn't playing. Looking back on that, I think that's what has made me such a competitive player now.

"Before my debut against Tottenham, I was telling myself to just focus on the basics, but I was so nervous heading to the ground and warming up.

"Then one of my old coaches told me that if I played well, everyone would talk about me as a 16-year-old playing at Chelsea, and if I didn't, then everyone would just go on with their days and not remember at all, and that helped calm me down.

"It is a bit mad looking back on me debuting at 16, although I didn't feel like a 16-year-old player at the time. I think if that happened now and someone was playing for Chelsea at 16, it would be news everywhere."

That bow came in the Continental Cup (now the Subway Women's League Cup), a 5-1 win for the Blues, and her first goal followed in the same competition in a 3-1 success against Aston Villa Women in January 2020.

"It was total disbelief to score my first goal," she said. "I remember just trying to get myself into the right areas for the ball coming into the box, and I managed to get first contact on the ball before I watched it hit the back of the net.

"After that game, it was all a bit of a whirlwind, but I just remember taking every opportunity I was handed, and because of how I was performing, I gave Emma confidence to keep putting me on the pitch."

Countless players who've been worked under Hayes, a five-time Women's Super League (WSL) winner, will likely say she is the most influential person in their career because she's developed so many players into internationals and world-class stars.

"In football, her achievements speak for themselves, and she was huge for me," said Murphy. "Emma was the person who provided me with so many opportunities and really put my name on the map.

"But, if I'm being honest, I used to have a female coach when I was playing for Middlesex, Jade Dempster, and I would say she was the most influential person for me, especially when it came to first falling in love with football."

Despite her promising start to life at Chelsea and then a successful loan spell with fellow WSL side Birmingham City Women, Murphy decided to follow her dream of playing in America.

She saw the idea of getting a degree alongside playing for some of the top universities in the country as a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity.

"I was always going to America," she said. "I'd never known playing football without being in education, so being able to continue doing that while having a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I was never turning that down.

"For me, I was in the headspace of, if I don't like it, then I can always come home, but after only two weeks, my parents hadn't really heard from me, and that was because I was just so busy and loving life.

"I cannot say a bad word about UNC. I would move back there and stay for the rest of my life if I could. I honestly can't even put into words what it's like as a place to play and live."

Murphy split her time between America and the Republic of Ireland, with the forward making the move for solely footballing reasons. However, success followed her wherever she went.

She featured in two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship finals, captaining Wake Forest to an unfortunate loss against her former university, but everything she achieved across the pond was to ensure she achieved success back in England, and one day reach the WSL.

"When I left for Wake Forest, I would still commute back to UNC for weekends because I couldn't stand being away from the environment, but I do still say I loved my time at Chapel Hill, and it holds a special place in my heart," she said.

"At UNC, there was an expectation to make it to a national championship, whereas at Wake Forest it was seen as a luxury to just reach an ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) or NCAA tournament, so to reach two NCAA finals was great, but bittersweet as I lost both of them.

"I was always preparing myself for playing in America and getting used to the physicality of the football over there, but I knew once I returned to the UK, I was going to be a much fitter player than when I left."

The versatile forward is not only thriving on the pitch in black and white, but is already engrossed in the North East lifestyle, even trying to persuade her family to relocate to the region.

"I ring my mum all the time and tell her that we need to live up here, especially when the sun is out and you're so close to the beach and city centre, no matter where you are," she added.

"I'd never been to Newcastle before moving here so I had no idea what to expect, but Geordies are so friendly.

"The culture of an entire city of people who would die for the Newcastle badge is something amazing, and if you ask someone who they support, it almost feels like an insult, because who else would they support apart from Newcastle?

"This sort of environment around the club and city is something I've never been a part of before, and I say it to the girls all the time: I feel like I am a Geordie."