Wrexham’s busy transfer window: Record deals, Eriksen approach, clearout needed too

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It has been difficult to keep up with Wrexham’s recruitment since their return from tour Down Under a week ago.

Transfer record broken… twice? Tick. First foray into the European market? Tick. Ambitious approach for big-name Premier League star? Tick. Beating a host of Championship clubs to an in-demand free agent? Tick. International striker on the radar? Tick.

These are heady days, indeed, for a club who, until Ollie Palmer’s arrival for £300,000 in January 2023, had not broken their club transfer record fee for almost 45 years, when signing the incomparable Joey Jones from Liverpool.

Jones’ return to The Racecourse Ground in 1978 came just a couple of months into Wrexham’s first ever season in the old Second Division, the level to which they will return next month.

The presence of such an inspirational figure, who passed away last week at the age of 70, helped the Welsh club navigate these previously uncharted waters to secure a 15th place finish, still the highest in their history.

Phil Parkinson’s task almost five decades on is to do similar, albeit in an era where the gulf between the third and second tier has rarely seemed as wide.

Hence the sudden flurry of activity after the return from Australia and New Zealand last Monday that has yielded four new faces and the breaking of the club transfer record twice to sign, first, left-back Liberato Cacace from Empoli for an initial €2.5million (£2.16m) and then midfielder Lewis O’Brien from Nottingham Forest.

In between those two landmark additions, George Thomason, who captained Bolton Wanderers least season, became only the third seven-figure signing in Wrexham’s history and Josh Windass joined on a free after his contract at Sheffield Wednesday had been cancelled by mutual consent amid the financial problems engulfing the Yorkshire club.

Wrexham want more. A striker — Sheffield United’s Kieffer Moore has been discussed — and a central defender are on a shopping list that, earlier in the summer, briefly contained Christian Eriksen, the Denmark international recently released by Manchester United.

Moore, the Sheffield United and Wales striker, is on Wrexham’s radar (Tony King/Getty Images)

A desire to continue playing at the top level meant the approach was rebuffed, though Eriksen’s representative, Martin Schoots, did subsequently admit to Mail Sport that Wrexham were a “hugely impressive project”.

Whether those overtures towards Moore lead to the Wales international joining before the season’s opener at Southampton on August 9 remains to be seen. Ruben Selles, the Sheffield United manager, was non-committal when asked about the 32-year-old’s future after leaving him on the bench for Saturday’s 4-1 friendly win over Chesterfield.

What isn’t in doubt, however, is how the patient approach has paid off for Wrexham in this window. All six summer signings — striker Ryan Hardie was signed from Plymouth Argyle and Wales international goalkeeper Danny Ward joined after his Leicester City deal expired before the trip Down Under — were the result of talks that began weeks, if not months, earlier.

For instance, Windass and O’Brien, the two most recent additions, were deals that were well down the road before Parkinson and his squad flew out to Melbourne on Sunday July 6. A huge amount of work, including the manager’s famous test of character in prospective signings, had been conducted before jetting off.

Contact was then maintained throughout those two weeks on the other side of the world, with Parkinson, director Shaun Harvey and chief executive Michael Williamson all on early morning calls to the UK and Europe to keep moves on track.

The persistence paid off last week as Wrexham’s squad was given a much-needed Championship flavour to go with the current excessive numbers that are a direct consequence of the club’s rapid rise with the three-year contracts offered on the back of clinching promotion back to the EFL in 2023 still having a year to run.

EFL rules for the 2025-26 season state Championship clubs can register up to 25 players, including goalkeepers (under-21s are exempt). As it stands, even after the departures of Paul Mullin, Will Boyle, Luke Bolton and Luke McNicholas, Wrexham have 30.

With two more key additions wanted — and the possibility Parkinson will want to further refresh in other positions — a sizeable clear out is inevitable.

As for who goes only time will tell. Wrexham have eight senior strikers on the books (including Jake Bickerstaff, who has recently been on trial at Cheltenham Town) along with another eight central midfielders and four left wing-backs.

Regardless of whether Parkinson goes with the 3-5-1-1 formation that served Wrexham so well during last season’s run-in or the box-midfield setup seen Down Under, whereby two attacking midfielders push on to support the lone striker as two others anchor the midfield, these numbers are unsustainable.

Getting players out the door won’t be easy. Wrexham pay well and promotion to the Championship is likely to have meant a further wage rise across the squad.

As a result, some on the fringes may have to be paid to leave. Others may strike deals on transfer fees to allow the purchasing club to offer wages more on a par with what Wrexham pay as a Championship club.

Mullin has left for a season-long loan at Wigan Athletic in League One ((Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)

In many ways, this transfer window has the feel of the first at Wrexham under Parkinson after his appointment on July 1 2021. An overhaul was required then, as shown by 10 new faces, including Mullin and Ben Tozer, eventually arriving in the two months leading up to deadline day.

Gelling so many signings into a cohesive unit is never easy. So it proved with Wrexham a lowly 13th going into November during that first full season under the ownership of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and still seventh in mid-February, by which time Palmer, Tom O’Connor and Callum McFadzean had been added.

Only once those January window additions had been made did Wrexham truly hit their stride. A second place finish was followed by heartache in the play-offs against Grimsby Town with promotion from the National League following a year later after further investment.

It’s likely to be a similar story this time around, with three full transfer windows required to truly get Wrexham in a position where a concerted push for the Premier League can be made this time next year.

Until then, bridging that considerable gap between League One and the Championship has to be the order of the day. The recruitment of the past week, plus the promise of more to come, has put Wrexham in a position to do just that.

(Top photo: O’Brien has arrived in a club record deal from Forest; Ed Sykes/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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