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Eyes are slowly turning towards Phil Parkinson after Wrexham’s slow start to their Championship season, and plenty of fans will tell you they saw this coming.
EFL Analysis’ chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey has exclusively revealed Parkinson is under pressure to push Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s club up the second tier table, with them currently fourth from bottom and two points off the relegation spots.
This is despite Wrexham having the biggest net spend of any Championship club this summer transfer window. The Welsh club dropped the third highest figure on transfers, splashing £32.7million on new players including Ipswich Town’s Nathan Broadhead for up to £10million.
Of course, only five games have been played at the time of writing, but Wrexham have clear ambitions, and that doesn’t involve finding themselves near the bottom end of the second tier. Now, fans on social media are admitting they’re not surprised by Parkinson being under pressure already, despite him pushing the club to back-to-back-to-back promotions from the National League.
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Fans think Phil Parkinson has taken Wrexham ‘as far as he can’
Taking to X in reaction to EFL Analysis’ exclusive, many supporters thought Parkinson had probably run his race at the Racecourse.
EFL YouTuber Callum Fowler said: “Wrexham are cut throat with purpose, 3 promotions in a row but this is as far as Parky can take em.”
“A lot of us knew this was gonna happen before the season started but they need to wait at least until they’ve played us in a few weeks before sacking him,” a Birmingham City fan said.
“But they will be happy with just avoiding relegation,” one joked. “These owners want promotion and nothing less, anything other than promotion after spending 30 mil they’ll see as failure.
“Parky has a few games left to hang on to his job for me. There was always going to be a point he could do no more but this has come sooner than I thought.”
Making a nod to Wrexham’s spending, another said: “You can’t always buy the league.”
What’s going wrong for Wrexham this season?
As many fans of the second tier know, the Championship is a completely different beast to the leagues below it.
As many promoted teams quickly discover, there is little to no room for error in a division where anyone can beat anyone. That’s especially true this year, with every club bar Wrexham previously being in the Championship since its rebrand in 2004. League One and below were more forgiving when Parkinson’s side weren’t at their best.
There were plenty of games last term when they won automatic promotion from League One that they won by a one goal margin. Wrexham have shipped 10 goals already this term, at a rate of two per game.
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For a club that has former Premier League player Conor Coady at the back, Wrexham must do better defensively. They can do that against Norwich City at Carrow Road this weekend.