Crewe Alexandra have announced that former club captain Luke Murphy and centre-back Omar Beckles have joined the club, becoming the fourth and fifth signings of this transfer window.
Murphy, 30, has joined the club on a 2-year deal, rejoining the club that he captained to EFL Trophy glory and the first-ever Academy 11 in 2013 with him spending 5 years at Leeds United (including 2 loan spells at Burton Albion) and the last couple of seasons at Bolton Wanderers.
Beckles, 28, has joined the club on an initial 12-month deal with the option of a second year after he left Shrewsbury Town earlier in the summer. He’s also played for Jerez Industrial in Spain, two spells at Boreham Wood, Kettering Town, Billericay Town, Histon, Margate, AFC Hornchurch, St. Albans City, Aldershot Town and Accrington Stanley before joining the Shrews.
Murphy will wear the number 28 shirt (the same number that he wore breaking into the team) while Beckles will wear the number 29.
What do these signings mean for the club?
Both players have played over 300 games in their careers so far (Murphy is into the 400s) with plenty of those games at this level for both players. Beckles is a Grenadian international, having made his debut last year for them, who has played both as a centre-back in a back 3 as well as at left wing-back so it’ll be interesting to see whether we’ll move to a back 3 in some games with the depth we have at centre-back.
