Championship news: Can Phil Parkinson steer Hollywood-inspired Wrexham to another promotion?
Anyone who tuned in to watch Wrexham’s first second-tier home match for 43 years would have seen enough to be convinced that here was a club who belonged at this level of football.
The final score (2-3) favoured visitors West Bromwich Albion, but the Welsh side deserved at least a point on the balance of play, writes Sports News Blitz’s AJ Becker.
And while their opponents that day currently occupy a relegation place, Phil Parkinson’s team now find themselves in a play-off position, having swerved the common pitfalls of newly promoted teams and embraced the EFL Championship with all its possibilities.
Best Welsh team
Madness topped the UK Charts with “House of Fun” when the Red Dragons’ previous tier-two campaign concluded in May 1982.
That title is a description you could easily apply to the Racecourse Ground this season, with diehard fans having witnessed myriad memorable matches after a great many years in the wilderness.
Parkinson has managed over 1,000 games and had already won promotion with three different teams prior to joining Wrexham in 2021.
The 58-year-old has since steered the club to a hat-trick of consecutive promotions that simply had no precedent in British football.
Not since 2000-01 have the North Wales outfit been in a higher division than Cardiff City, and they look likely to finish ahead of Swansea City as the highest-placed Welsh team in the English leagues.
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A Hollywood transformation
It is comforting, if unexpected, that co-chairmen and majority owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have placed their faith in a proven British manager rather than opt for the putative glamour of a coach from overseas or the cachet associated with a ‘big name’ appointment.
The Hollywood duo’s transformation of the club has continued, their strategy and vision seemingly undented by the higher-quality opponents that have been hurled in their direction since August.
Fans of other EFL clubs looking for more reasons to dislike ‘brand Wrexham’ will have found them in abundance during the off-season.
Their total transfer outlay was reported to be around £40 million – including the acquisition of Championship stars such as Ryan Hardie, Kieffer Moore, Ben Sheaf, and Dominic Hyam.
The arrival of players with significant Premier League experience (Conor Coady, Nathan Broadhead) meant the weight of expectation, not to mention media attention, increased tenfold.
Tourism in Wrexham has also grown considerably since 2022 as a result of the city’s increased global profile which the football club’s continued success has begotten, contributing almost £200 million to the local economy per annum.
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Strength in depth
Whilst there may be no precedent for Wrexham’s rapid rise through the divisions, there undoubtedly is for newly promoted teams securing Championship survival.
Indeed, 22 of the last 30 clubs to get there have done so in their debut season, finishing on average in 17th or 18th place.
Those with stadia of comparable size to that of the Racecourse Ground (Doncaster, Scunthorpe, and Burton) have fallen into an identikit pattern of consolidation for a few seasons followed by an inability to sustain things.
Even well-resourced Salford, who emerged into the EFL in 2019 riding a wave of fanfare, are arguably yet to justify their hype.
Yet, with many of last season’s key players continuing to play a vital role – George Dobson, Sam Smith, and to a lesser extent Lewis Brunt and Oliver Rathbone – and Max Cleworth having played regularly in all four divisions, there is a sense of continuity as well as aspiration in the current Wrexham set-up.
And the signing of high-performing centre-back Zak Vyner last month from direct rivals Bristol City reaffirms the quality and strength in depth that Parkinson has at his disposal for the remaining third of the season.
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Here to stay
The default setting of previous seasons (4-4-2 with power in the centre and pace on the flanks) remains largely unaltered, albeit with subtle variations in formation.
There has at times been an over-reliance on direct attacking at the expense of technical nuance and dynamic variety – first-choice strikers Moore and Windass have between them netted 18 of Wrexham’s 44 goals.
Nonetheless, brief digressions into more passing-based territory brought them unlikely away wins at Millwall and Norwich earlier in the season.
The fact that all four away matches in January ended in victory only serves to highlight the fact that this is a team infinitely more dangerous when counter-attacking at speed.
No other side in the division has pulled off four straight away wins, and it brings Wrexham’s current form to six wins in eight (following six in the previous 22).
Undaunted at the season’s outset, uninhibited two-thirds of the way through it, and unstoppable at the run-in?
Sneaking into the top six on the final day would be some finish – the Hollywood story waiting to happen!
In any case, Wrexham have made a convincing case that they belong at this level and, rather than paddle in the dead pools of mediocrity, will be competing at its upper end long after the credits roll on the 2025-26 season.
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