Murphy: Emulating Shearer

When I see younger managers like Shearer and Gareth Southgate, it inspires me to try and be like them.

I have ambitions of going into management when I finish playing, and they are fuelled by watching a match like Monday's between Newcastle and Middlesbrough.

It is always a positive thing to see players going into management. It shows they are strong leaders and that it is possible to make that leap. Over the last couple of years, Southgate has done a good job.

I don't find it off-putting to see the pair of them sweating it out on the touchline - quite the opposite. Seeing them stressed and emotional after games inspires me to emulate them.

I am doing my coaching badges at the moment, but it is always difficult to say what you will do in the future as you never know what is around the corner. I want to play for as long as I can but I have always enjoyed the more tactical side of the game.

Whether I get the chance to coach will come down to what opportunities arise - sometimes you just have to wait for the right thing to come up.

I think I would enjoy it and I would like the experience of staying involved with the players, but time will tell.

It is nice to be looking at the relegation battle from afar because we were in there last year and we know how hard it is to get out of trouble.

It is really difficult when you are down at the bottom. You feel like winning one game isn't enough and that you need to go on a run, which can seem impossible.

Last season Fulham were in terrible trouble and I don't think even we believed we could stay up until after we beat Manchester City after going 2-0 down.

The situation for a lot of players is that they have their livelihoods to think about. If you aren't in the Premier League your wage goes down and your value is less so there is a big pressure playing in relegation games and it is something that no-one enjoys.

Last year in our predicament, I was gutted that we were involved in that situation. Even though we eventually got out of it we were still hugely disappointed to have been down there in the first place.

This year's battle looks very exciting and everybody on the outside is looking forward to the last couple of games to see who actually goes down.

It looks like it will come down to West Brom, Middlesbrough, Hull and Newcastle, who we are playing on Saturday.

It is hard, but the players battling to out down there have to approach it in a confident and courageous way. You have to play with no fear.

We got into a situation where everyone had written us off so we had no pressure and could play with unexpected freedom, which may be the reason why West Brom have the best form of anyone at the bottom.

We are lucky this season to be in the top half pushing for European football. We are playing with a relaxed, free-flowing style, and it is much more enjoyable than feeling that every mistake could mean relegation.