The football fan’s summer always begins with difficult goodbyes.

Some familiar names left the club last week. The announcement of the retained list brought an end to some distinguished Wrexham careers, and we lost some good friends to boot.

That’s the inevitable nature of football. It’s a competitive sport, so tough decisions have to be made. That doesn’t mean they’re the wrong decisions, but the price of success is losing people we’ll miss.

Jordan Davies is part of the fabric of the modern club. He is both a wonderful ambassador for the club and a genuine talent.

The most recent Wrexham-born player to score a hat-trick, which he did with aplomb at Halifax, he came through the club’s ranks and it was quite a blow when he moved to join Brighton just as he was about to make Dean Keates’ first eleven.

Keates never made any secret of his admiration for Davies’ talent and was quick to act when the opportunity arose to bring him back to the Racecourse. He served us superbly and it was a shame that the start of our League Two season coincided with him picking up an injury.

That hampered his chances of enjoying continuity in the first eleven, and ultimately led to this season’s loan to Grimsby.

I know this is a little left field, but I can’t help looking back to our defeat at Accrington in November last season and wondering whether that was a key moment for Davies.

By that point our squad was packed full of exceptionally strong central midfielders. He was competing with the likes of Elliott Lee and Andy Cannon for an attacking role and an injury at the start of the season had set him back.

International call-ups for James McClean and Jacob Mendy meant Davies was unexpectedly  shifted across to his old position of left wing back. It was an opportunity for him to find a new place in Parkinson’s plans vying for both that position and a midfield slot.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go well although the blame did not lie at Davies’ door. It was one of those days where the whole team struggled. Accrington had an extremely well thought-out plan to counteract us and as a result it was difficult for anybody to shine.

It was the first and last time Parkinson used Davies as a left wing back. I can’t help wondering: if the side hadn’t suffered a collective malfunction whether he might have carved out a different path to remain at The Racecourse. Instead, somewhat surprisingly, that turned out to be his final league start for us.

Mark Howard, of course, has been a remarkable servant to the club, not least with his reaction to being replaced by Ben Foster and then Arthur Okonkwo.

His reaction, accepting whatever the manager felt was best for the club, was incredibly humble and his ability to be ready at a moment’s notice to step in and perform with quality was invaluable.

He was right to point out that he’s the first goalkeeper to achieve three consecutive professional promotions in Britain because he played such a massive role in keeping those campaigns on track.

The goalkeeping department is certainly not as well populated as it was at the end of the season. Brad Foster will go down as a one-hit wonder, although it has to be said his sole appearance for us was remarkable. The string of saves he made against Crewe in the Vertu Trophy were quite something.

Liam Hall leaves as well, having been, I suppose, our first example of a modern phenomenon, the training goalkeeper. He was important in maintaining off-field balance and match preparation without actually getting to make a first team appearance. Mark Howard’s podcast has given an interesting insight into the goalkeeping group that we have and it’s been revealing to have an insight on Hall’s value to the club.

It was Steven Fletcher’s departure which was the biggest surprise. He has made a unique contribution to our success. We won more games 1-0 than we ever have done in a previous season, and Fletcher was a massive part of that.

Seven times he came off the bench and scored; five times he came off the bench and scored the winning goal. That’s ten points that his goals were responsible for right there.

He ended up equal top scorer, even though he only started two games all season! No need to check if that’s a club record! And yet, he’s gone.

Yes, that’s a bit surprising. But his departure tells us something massive about what is to come. Wrexham mean business next year.

Rob McElhenney suggested after promotion that he doesn’t know what the word “consolidation” means. I think that tells you everything you need to know about the mentality of our owners.

If Parkinson feels we can improve the squad by allowing Fletcher to go, it shows the level of ambition we have. We clearly don’t intend to replace Fletcher with a seat filler.

We have the budget, we have supportive owners, and we have a plan. We’ve scaled up successfully three times in three years, and if we are planning to bring in players of the calibre which makes us feel we can let Fletcher go, we’re going to be going for it again next season. I think I may have forgotten what consolidate means too!

The truth of the matter is that we are in a position to push on and see what we can make of The Championship, and the departure of so many great servants of the club illustrates this.

Look back to last summer. Do you honestly feel that the likes of Luke Young and Ben Tozer couldn’t have done a job for us in League One?

Of course they could, but Parkinson took tough decisions, and let people go who he knew were valuable. The reason was simple: he wanted a League One team that would thrive, not just survive. He drafted in players who would take the places of excellent servants of the club, and it worked.

We are saddened by those departures, but you can’t argue against the logic of bringing in high-class players, can you?

Look at James Jones, who left in January. He never let us down, playing with a wonderful mixture of energy and quality.

Yet the player who was brought in as a direct replacement, a player who has very similar attributes, has just won player of the season.

I was sad to see Jones superseded, but you can’t argue that Ollie Rathbone hasn’t been a roaring success!

The players who have been released, many of whom are perfectly capable of playing a role next season, have gone because Parkinson has big plans.

Whether those plans pan out, we don’t know. That’s the great dilemma for any football manager: if their judgement proves to be flawed, the fragility of their place at the club is in danger.

But thus far, Parkinson’s judgement has been remarkably accurate. He has made tough decisions and been vindicated. He’s certainly earned the right to make those decisions again.

There are plenty of other examples of the club replacing good players in an attempt to to step up a level.

Back in 1991, when Neil Salathiel was released, I don’t mind admitting I was shocked. Salathiel’s last game had been at Cardiff Arms Park, leading us out for the Welsh Cup final as captain. I didn’t see his departure coming.

However, as the next season wore on, I started to get it.

Salathiel’s departure was not a comment on him, per se. However, on a limited budget, Flynn needed to draft in talent. Salathiel’s replacement, Barry Jones, captain of the Liverpool reserves, would go on to be a superb player for us.

Jones would be a regular the following season, as we were promoted from the fourth division. He would continue to give sterling service in the third division as both a right back and a centre back.

He was a class act.  So was Salathiel,to be fair, but in those days our budget certainly couldn’t accommodate the luxury of spare players across the board.

It must have been a tough decision to let Salathiel go,as his wholehearted play had been a real fixture of some tough times for Wrexham in the late 1980s. However, it was difficult to argue against drafting Barry Jones into his position, as the results were spectacular.

Phil Parkinson has let some good players – and good people – go because he’s hoping to continue another spectacular run. It’s sad to say goodbye, but Parkinson has more than enough credit in the bank to suggest he’s got something exciting up his sleeve.