The Ryan Reynolds & Rob Mac fairy tale is over: Why Wrexham’s Premier League dream could already be on hold for another year
After sealing their record-breaking third successive promotion in 2025, Wrexham signed 13 players in preparation for their first season back in English football’s second tier for 43 years. Reynolds and Mac invested around £40 million to reconstruct the squad, and it’s fair to say the money was spent wisely, because the Red Dragons ended up finishing seventh, just two points outside the play-offs.
The approach was different this summer, though. Wrexham made only seven premium signings in a ‘quality over quantity’ push to make that final step towards the Premier League. Parkinson attempted to build a Championship-proven spine, with former England Under-21s goalkeeper Anthony Patterson the headline addition, becoming the club’s most expensive player ever after an £8m switch from Sunderland.
Wrexham also brought in Burnley centre-back Joe Worrall, defensive midfielder Ben Whiteman from Preston, and Sheffield United No.10 Callum O’Hare, along with full-back trio Jacques Ekomie, Danny Imray, and Issa Kabore, the latter of whom completed a permanent switch from Manchester City after a successful loan spell in 2025-26.
Expectations went up again after that £35m outlay. However, Wrexham also let 13 players go, including two core members of the team in Thomas O’Connor and Andy Cannon. Meanwhile, Davis Keillor-Dunn’s loan move too Sheffield Wednesday exposed the flaws in Wrexham’s transfer strategy. Keillor-Dunn had been a prolific in League One at Barnsley, but Wrexham only used him sparingly after signing the forward for £4m in the winter window.
For the significant money spent, the return on new players has been generally underwhelming this year. Parkinson played it safe instead of targeting genuine upgrades; there’s an argument that he would have been better off simply preserving the team’s hard-earned chemistry.
It wasn’t a well planned out summer either. Indeed, Wrexham only went for Worrall on deadline day after star defender Max Cleworth suffered a serious hamstring injury. They swooped for O’Hare at the last minute, too, after failed approaches for attacking duo Anis Mehmeti and Femi Azeez.
