It’s reasonably clear that manager Phil Parkinson has done his bit at Wrexham. “He’s an excellent, a bit of a bumbling manager for the lower divisions, but he can’t handle the level of the Championship enough to reach his goal of promotion to the Premier League.
Wrexham could soon have to decide on Phil Parkinson’s future after a poor start to the season that has left them with just 14 points from 13 games and just five points above the relegation zone.
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Parkinson has worked wonders with the Red Dragons over the years, and he is a big reason why Wrexham are playing in the Championship today. He even almost led them to the play-offs last season – but this season there has been no sign of progress.
That’s despite Wrexham spending a further £33.5 million this summer, increasing the spending total for the last two summers to £66.5 million – a huge expense for a Championship club.
Expectations have risen, and Parkinson is struggling to keep up. There has long been debate about the style of his football and its somewhat old-fashioned feel – but as the current Wrexham boss has experienced, such complaints quickly disappear when success arrives.
However, it does make managers like Parkinson more susceptible to criticism when things aren’t going well, and that’s the situation now. Fans are starting to wonder if Parkinson has taken Wrexham as far as he can, and while past performances will give him more time than most, even he knows that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney will have to make a decision if development continues in the same vein.
After Wrexham’s last defeat, to Sheffield United, he said: “It’s probably as big an achievement as the promotions in the other years, to finish seventh in the Championship. Of course, we all know that in the second season in the division, there’s a lot of talk that the momentum was with us and that could be a factor.
“But we’re in a similar situation to last year. Now my job and the rest of the staff is to get the group to understand that we have to turn up every week and if we don’t win, the performance is at a level where the manager and the opponents say: ‘you were difficult to play against tonight’. I don’t think Chris (Wilder, Sheffield United manager) says that in the first place.”
Who should Wrexham turn to next if Parkinson is sacked?
If Wrexham sack Parkinson, the question will be who is next. There are a couple of names linked to the job, and Scott Parker is now out of the picture as he goes to West Ham to replace Nuno Espírito Santo. Charlton Athletic boss Nathan Jones is linked but simply doesn’t offer the step forward Wrexham need, while Rob Edwards has not proven he can give Parkinson a step further.
A potentially solid option is former Swansea City and Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper. Fans will have to forget about the Swansea connection, but Cooper has a promotion to the Championship to his credit, and he uses the kind of football that works in the second division.
Why? Because he is flexible. Cooper’s background through the academies was heavily based on ball possession, but in senior football, he has usually adapted his system to win matches. He has played all kinds of formations with no requirement to dominate the ball. In short, he makes his teams do what it takes to achieve results – which is crucial in the Championship.
He himself said in 2023:
“Coaching is about doing things in a way you believe in, but it’s also about living in the moment and adapting. In modern games, teams play a couple of formations in one game, and they can be effective in different ways. Football has never been so fluid.”
Too many managers fail in the Second Division because they have an ideal of football and how it should be played, but more often than not, that doesn’t apply in a long, hard Championship season where games pile up and pitches start to decay up and down in the league.
Cooper has that pragmatism in the way he handles things, which is crucial.
Combine that with promotion and Premier League experience on his CV and Wrexham have a strong candidate should they decide to leave with Parkinson’s.
