Wrexham in a rush on second tier return – Oppo Profile Thursday, 11th Sep 2025 15:11 by Clive Whittingham Wrexham haven’t been in the second tier since 1982, but a £30m summer haul of proven talent for this level suggests the Ryan Reynolds/Rob McElhenney vehicle isn’t in the mood to hang around – we spoke to the RobRyanRed (@RobRyanRed) podcast and Matt from The Racecourse Ramble (@racecourserambl). How's the season started? Matt: Well, it's funny, we could have had a few more points than we've got. We've been in games for longer than I thought we would be, because I knew it was going to be a challenge. Points wise we're not pulling up any trees or setting the world alight but actually I think we would probably say it's been fairly positive. If we'd have taken some more chances we’d have taken points from Southampton and West Brom. We’ve not been played off the park by anybody as of yet, we've been in these games and had chances to get more points. By and large I’ve been fairly pleased with the start. As ever that first month you’re still in the to and fro of the transfer window and we haven’t had our finished, finalised squad until now. RRR: It’s been a topsy-turvy start to say the least although I’d caveat that with the fact that I think we’ve played teams that will finish inside the top eight in Southampton, West Brom and, potentially, Millwall. It’s very reminiscent of when we started League Two and it took us a little while to find our feet. Wrexham in the league so far… Early impressions of the Championship and your team within it? Matt: I think my only surprise so far has been how slow Ipswich have started because I thought they’d pretty much run away with it and as of yet that hasn’t happened. The league is exactly what I thought it would be. It's more physical, it's faster, technically it's miles better than League One. Undoubtedly you get punished a lot more than you than you do in the in the lower league. Not a shock. It’s hard to say where Wrexham sit within that. The challenge so far is that you've not got a completed squad until September. I think we'll get a truer reflection on where we sit in the next six weeks as the new players settle in. RRR: The early impression is the pace of it and just how little you can step off before you’re punished. Isaac Price carved us open in the West Brom game like I’d rarely seen us get carved open and that was a lesson that I know a lot of the players took onboard. We’ve signed players that can have us competing at the right end of this league and we’re not shy of experience at this level now - but it’s about stitching it all together and fast. Has Phil Parkinson modified the style at all - that was the bit a lot of the season previews seemed quite sniffy about with you guys? Matt: In terms of progression in terms of style we haven’t seen any modification so far, but obviously deadline day was very busy for us. There is a school of thought that now we've got Nathan Broadhead and Josh Windass that we might end up playing both of them behind Keiffer Moore but they’ve not been fit and available at the same time yet because Josh got injured in his second game. We have been playing a bit more football I think but there are times in games where we resort to long balls to relieve pressure, but actually, all we end up doing is bringing pressure back on ourselves because you're giving the opposition the ball back time and time again. Phil Parkinson has talked about how we need to be better at that, but that's something that's been with us for a long time so we'll see. He’s said for a long time that he’s going to improve that so we'll see whether that does happen now he's got better footballers, or whether we still end up doing that. We still seem pretty direct and very reliant on Kiefer Moore at the moment. RRR: Parkinson switched to a 3-4-1-1 system from January in a bid to get us promoted out of League One and he’s stuck with that so far. Much has been made of Parkinson’s style at all levels in truth and it can be pretty misunderstood. Yes, we are quite direct with a target man. But people conveniently like to overlook some really nice interplay between players like Lewis O’Brien and Liberato Cacace. The challenge when everyone is fit is will Parkinson show some flexibility to play to the strength of the group or be rigid and stick with the 3-4-1-1? We’ll soon find out. A big, high-spending transfer window, what do you make of the business done? Matt: Keiffer Moore and Lewis O'Brien have probably been the standout in terms of the transfer window. It's mind bending for us Wrexham fans. We've gone from scratching around in free agent bins to spending more than £30m if the fees that are reported are accurate which is just beyond comprehension. We haven’t seen all the new arrivals yet because some of them signed on deadline day but on paper they are going to drastically improve our squad. Ben Sheaf, I know the Coventry fans say he’s injury prone, but that’s a quality Championship midfielder isn’t it? You kind of assume that he is going to drive the levels and the standards. And then you've got somebody like Issa Kabore came in, who's obviously spent time with Luton in the Premier League, but again, he's not kicked a football for us because as soon as he signed he disappeared off for international duty with Burkina Faso. So it's on paper, it looks good, but obviously we'll see when, as the season progresses, how those players respond and react and settle down. But on paper, it's both mind melding and it's very exciting. RRR: You’d have to say it’s the best transfer window in the club’s history. We have had financial muscle at lower levels but our focus then was on wages over transfer fees. That has shifted now and to see us go out and get players like Callum Doyle (£5m), Ben Sheaf (£6.5m) and Nathan Broadhead (£7.5m) has been incredible. The club are operating on a two-year plan to reach the Premier League so this has been a window of squad reconstructive surgery with a whole new XI through the door. Dom Hyam, a deadline day arrival from Blackburn Rovers, bolsters the backline, while Issa Kabore, on loan from Man City, provides us with international pedigree at right wing-back. Danny Ward arrived on a free from Leicester City and quickly became our number one, only to pick up a serious elbow injury against Millwall and he won’t play any part for the rest of the year. Ins >>> Nathan Broadhead, 27, AM, Ipswich, £8m >>> Ben Sheaf, 27, CM, Coventry, £6m >>> Callum Doyle, 21, CB, Man City, £5m >>> Lewis O’Brien, 26, CM, Forest, £3m >>> Dominic Hyam, 29, CB, Blackburn, £3m >>> Liberato Cacace, 24, LB, Empoli, £2m >>> Kieffer Moore, 32, CF, Sheff Utd, £2m >>> Conor Coady, 32, CB, Leicester, £2m >>> George Thomason, 24, CM, Bolton, £1m >>> Ryan Hardie, 28, CF, Plymouth, £800k >>> Josh Windass, 31, AM, Sheff Wed, Free >>> Danny Ward, 32, GK, Leicester, Free >>> Issa Kabore, 24, RB, Man City, Loan Outs >>> Sam Dalby, 25, CF, Bolton, Free >>> Mark Howard, 38, GK, Salford, Free >>> Bradley Foster, 23, GK, Ross County, Free >>> Josh Adam, 21, AM, Budejovice (Czech), Free >>> Luke Bolton, 25, RB, Mansfield, Undisclosed >>> Will Boyle, 29, CB, Shrewsbury, Undisclosed >>> Jack Marriott, 30, CF, Reading, Undisclosed >>> Luke McNicholas, 25, GK, Fores Green, Undisclosed >>> George Evans, 30, CB, Burton, Free >>> Paul Mullin, 30, CF, Wigan, Loan >>> Jordan Davies, 26, CM, Fleetwood, Free >>> Ollie Palmer, 33, CF, Swindon, Free >>> Steven Fletcher, 38, CF, Released >>> Liam Hall, 20, GK, Released >>> Sebastien Revan, 22, LB, Burton, Loan >>> Thomas O’Connor, 26, CB, Peterborough, Loan >>> Mo Faal, 22, CF, Port Vale, Loan >>> Jacob Mendy, 28, LB, Peterborough, Loan >>> Jake Bickerstaff, 23, CF, Cheltenham, Loan >>> Callum Edwards, 19, RW, Southport, Loan Where is the team strong and weak at this point? Matt: Initially our main weakness was players getting in behind the wing backs. Our strongest left wing back, Liberato Cacace, who we signed in the summer has been injured and only just come back so we’re hoping he will give us some stability. Instead of having an out and out winger down the right like Ryan Longman or Ryan Barnett we’ve signed Kabore who will hopefully give us more defensive ability. Getting in behind there and individual errors have been the weakness. Our strength is probably us playing to Kieffer Moore’s strengths. He likes the ball played up to him early and we’ll continue to do that until Windass and Broadhead get back in the side, get settled and bring us that x factor and magic. The midfield of O’Brien, Dobson and Matty James has been pretty good as well. RRR: The team is quite unpredictable given all the transfer business but one of the biggest strengths to date has been Kieffer Moore. He is irreplaceable in what Parkinson is trying to do and is the only target man in our 24-man squad so keeping him fit is paramount to any success we have. Our midfield options are plentiful when we add Sheaf to the mix with O’Brien. Josh Windass and George Thomason, two other summer arrivals, are looking to return to the side for the QPR match, too. We have looked worryingly exposed in wide areas, particularly when opponents have got in behind our wing-backs. Cacace has played just twice in the league while we have yet to see Kabore. James McClean has struggled so far defensively while both Ryan Barnett and Ryan Longman have suffered similar issues on the right side. If you play to the strength of your wide players that’s how you can hurt Wrexham best. Listen to our reciprocal piece for Matt's Racecourse Ramble podcast here... Expectations for the season? Matt: My expectations were that Wrexham would finish probably somewhere mid table. But obviously when I made that prediction that was very early in the summer. I assumed we would buy players of a requisite quality to make that happen, but when you look at the players we have signed I think we can definitely finish at the top end of that mid-table. With a bit of fortune and good luck there is an outside shot that they could fight for that last playoff place but I think that would need a lot of lots go our way. We've changed 13 of players this summer. I think we need another summer before we can really think about a playoff push. But if a few teams drop the ball and things go right for us and we can steer clear of injury then it's not impossible, but I still think that's an outside chance. There are much bigger and stronger clubs than us in this league currently. Give us anything between sort of 15th and 10th I think is, is a realistic expectation. RRR: Both of us on the podcast predicted a top half finish before the season commenced and we’ll stick with that. We’ve added a wealth of Championship experience over the summer but it remains a very unforgiving league and by no means is any Wrexham fan expecting us to roll off the wins from now on. A top half finish with a late play-off push. Eighth. Links >>> Official Website >>> Racecourse Ground – Stadium Guide >>> Red Passion – Forum >>> RobRyanRed – Podcast >>> Racecourse Ramble – Podcast >>> Wrexham Insider – Blog >>> Wrexham Leader – Local Press Pictures - Reuters Connect Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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