Best laid plans and all that.
When Phil Parkinson was assessing the opening tranche of games for his promoted Wrexham side in the 2025-26 Championship, chances are Conor Coady and Danny Ward will have been inked in to play central roles against their previous club Leicester City on the final day of September.
The two internationals, part of the England and Wales squads respectively at the 2022 World Cup, were among the marquee signings made during a summer that brought 13 new faces to north Wales.
A little under eight weeks into the season, however, and the landscape has shifted for the duo. Ward is out until the New Year after suffering a dislocated elbow a month ago against Millwall, while Coady was confined to the bench for Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Leicester after being omitted from the matchday 20 completely for the weekend home game with Derby County that ended with the same scoreline.
Even allowing for how the former England international provided “invaluable” insight on his former team-mates when sitting down with the Wrexham analysts and coaching staff on Monday, this isn’t how it was supposed to be for two seasoned pros who both played for Leicester in the Premier League last season, Coady featuring 22 times and Ward twice.
Conor Coady was a high-profile arrival in the summer (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Nevertheless, what having Coady on the bench at the King Power Stadium alongside both Callum Doyle and record signing Nathan Broadhead did underline was the value of an extensive summer recruitment drive that has given Wrexham a squad fit for the Championship.
“We have got to have options,” says Parkinson, after watching Broadhead rescue a hard-fought point with a quite exemplary first-time finish 13 minutes from the end. “We said at the start of the summer that we were working towards that.
“Getting all the players up to speed is not so much a challenge but part of bringing players in, especially when some arrived later than others. But I do feel we are getting there.”
Nine points from eight games is a decent start to life in the second tier for Wrexham following three straight promotions, especially at a time when injuries mean five important squad members have already missed a combined 35 games.
Ollie Rathbone, their player of the year in 2024-25, is yet to kick a ball this season after suffering ankle ligament damage on the pre-season tour Down Under, while New Zealand international Liberato Cacace has had not one but two absences through hamstring injuries. He won’t be back until after the October international break.
Cacace’s fellow new signings Josh Windass and George Thomason have also had stints out, while Ward’s injury is so severe that he was omitted from the 25-name squad list for the first half of the season demanded by the EFL after the summer window closed on September 1.
Phil Parkinson congratulates his players after the draw at Leicester (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)
Next up are Birmingham City, another of the division’s promoted sides, at home on Friday night. Just how many changes Parkinson makes for that one remains to be seen, but three Championship games inside seven days is a big ask. Maybe the packed schedule will offer a route back for Coady, whose place at the heart of the back three has been taken in the past three games by Dominic Hyam, a deadline-day signing from Blackburn Rovers.
The former England defender’s failure to make even the bench at the weekend raised eyebrows, especially as Coady had started his Wrexham career in impressive fashion, Opta crediting him with three blocks and 10 clearances (five of them headed) in the opening-weekend defeat at Southampton.
It was a similar story in the 2-0 win at Millwall three weeks later, Coady again blocking three goal-bound shots and clearing the ball eight times, including four with his head. Only Lewis Brunt, with six blocks and seven clearances in the 2-2 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday, comes close to those individual match metrics among the Wrexham ranks this season.
Such displays were exactly why Wrexham paid £2million ($2.7m) for the 32-year-old after triggering the release clause in his Leicester contract. A renowned positive influence in the dressing room, Coady was so keen to sign that his was the quickest of the 13 summer deals to be concluded.
The 3-1 defeat at home to Queens Park Rangers on September 13 that led to him dropping out of the XI was a mess defensively. Not just for Coady — who was left trailing by the pace of Rumarn Burrell for the third goal — but the entire team, with the Londoners able to cut through their hosts with ease, especially in the first half.
Conor Coady lost his place after the defeat to QPR (Adam Fradgley/Getty Images)
Since coming into the starting XI in the wake of that defeat, Hyam has rarely put a foot wrong across 270 minutes of match action.
Barring one costly rush of blood by Lewis Brunt, it was a similar story on Tuesday night. By trying to nip in front of Jordan James and intercept a pass, the defender — also up against his previous club — simply had to get the ball. But he did not, allowing James to exchange passes with Patson Daka before running into the space created by Brunt’s rash dart forward and finishing coolly.
Otherwise, the defence were exemplary on a night when Marti Cifuentes’ home side dominated possession to the tune of 67.8 per cent with Max Cleworth three times averting the danger via his clever reading of the play.
“Conor’s knowledge about Leicester was very helpful for us,” adds Parkinson. “He came in with the analysts on Monday and was talking us through the individuals. As a staff, we’d watched a lot of the players and I’d been to watch Leicester at West Brom last Friday. But having that extra insight as well was invaluable for us.”
Coady’s time will come again. As will that of £5million summer arrival Doyle, another ex-Leicester defender confined to the bench on Tuesday. Both have already shown enough in Wrexham colours to justify the pursuit of their signatures.
Danny Ward started brightly with Wrexham (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
The same goes for Ward, who did well during a busy opening four games that saw the Wales international face a colossal 82 shots. According to Opta, the 32-year-old, whose name was sung by the 2,000 travelling fans tonight, over-performed by 0.7 goals (seven goals conceded, when his expected goals conceded on target metric stands at 7.7).
But for his save to deny Charlie McNeill in stoppage time against Wednesday, Wrexham would have lost their first three league games of the season. Who knows what damage that may have inflicted psychologically?
The gloves belong to Arthur Okonkwo at the moment but, as Coady’s recent absence has shown, the club’s extensive summer recruitment means things could change quickly with Callum Burton, so impressive against Reading in the Carabao Cup a week ago, ready to stake his own claim before Ward returns next year.
That is not a bad position for a manager to be in.
(Top photo: Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
