‘We Have Watched Players’—Phil Parkinson Makes Wrexham Transfer Admission

The Red Dragons signed 16 players across their first season back in the EFL Championship.

Wrexham finished seventh in the Championship table as they narrowly missed out on the playoffs. | Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

Phil Parkinson admits Wrexham must improve their squad again this summer if they are to push for promotion to the Premier League next season.

The Red Dragons enjoyed a successful return to the Championship as they competed in the second division for the first time in 43 years. Despite a slow start to the season, Wrexham soon found its footing and went on to finish seventh in the table, just two points behind Hull City in the final playoff position.

Hull secured promotion to the Premier League with victory over Middlesbrough in the playoff final at the weekend — another reminder of just how close Wrexham came to a fourth successive promotion.

While there were plenty of positives to take from Wrexham’s best finish in their 162-year history, there is also an internal sense that they may have missed an excellent opportunity to earn promotion. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burnley and West Ham United have all been relegated from the Premier League and will receive parachute payments next season, while Middlesbrough, Southampton and Birmingham City are also expected to be strong contenders for promotion.

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Phil Parkinson Eyes Squad Improvement

Josh Windass finished as Wrexham's top goalscorer and won the Player of the Season award. | Wrexham AFC

Wrexham broke its transfer record three times as part of a $45 million spending spree last summer, which saw 13 new players arrive. Seven of those summer signings had featured for their respective nations at the international level, while six arrived with Premier League experience. The North Wales club also made three new additions in the January window when it spent a further $6 million to support its promotion push.

The Red Dragons are not expected to be as busy this summer, with an emphasis on quality over quantity, though they could still spend big to bring in stars who can fuel their promotion ambitions.

“The positive side of it is that we built a competitive Championship squad, and we go into the summer with that,” Parkinson told Leader Live.

“We are working on the template for how we want the squad to look for next season and working toward building the squad to be competitive again. We have got to improve the squad as well, and we will be looking to do that. Of course, there are going to be some incoming players; how many, we will have to wait and see.

“As you can imagine, whatever division we were going to be in, we have watched players over the last few months. We have got a clear pathway of where we need to be, but as always—especially with the World Cup—it is going to take time.

“We know the areas we would like to strengthen, but at the moment, we just want to keep that between ourselves and work the way we always have, trying to get a team and squad in place that will be competitive again next season.”

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Every Player Wrexham Signed Last Season

Player	Transfer Fee	Club
Nathan Broadhead	$10.14m	Ipswich Town
Ben Sheaf	$8.78m	Coventry City
Callum Doyle	$6.76m	Manchester City
Lewis O'Brien	$6.76m	Nottingham Forest
Dom Hyam	$3.65m	Blackburn Rovers
Liberato Cacace	$2.97m	Empoli
Conor Coady	$2.7m	Leicester City
Kieffer Moore	$2.7m	Sheffield United
Davis Keillor-Dunn	$2.7m	Barnsley
Zak Vyner	$2m	Bristol City
George Thomason	$1.62m	Bolton Wanderers
Bailey Cadamarteri	$1.36m	Sheffield Wednesday
Ryan Hardie	$945,000	Plymouth Argyle
Danny Ward	Free	Leicester City
Josh Windass	Free	Sheffield Wednesday
Issa Kabore	Loan	Manchester City

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