Whoever Gives Sam A Scarf, That’s His Home
So, should Shrewsbury be worried right now? They’ve just appointed a manager with 22 league games under his belt as a manager, all at non-league level. He’s got off to a good start, but quite apart from the obvious risks involved when you draw a conclusion from a tiny sample size, results don’t tell you…
Curtis Obeng – The Man Who Revealed Dean Saunders’ Kryptonite
Curtis Obeng is a fine, developing full back who has frankly got a move to the place where his talent ought to be. I can’t help thinking that it’s a transfer which owes a lot to Wrexham’s change of management this season though. Dean Saunders deserves great praise for what he achieved at The Racecourse,…
The Shameless Wilshire Signs for Wrexham Other Targets Guy Clarke Holohan Robson-Kanu Haaland Mbappe Messi Lescott Grande Kardashian Depp Clickbait Transfer Window Post
With no game this weekend, there’s no obstacle to indulging in every football fan’s favourite pastime: idle speculation. Gossiping, guessing and gushing about who your team will bring in during the transfer window is one of the most important elements of the modern game, and for Wrexham that’s never been more true than it is…
The Bitter End
To say I’m deflated would be quite an understatement. I felt invested in last season’s squad, but the process of dismantling it has begun. There’s no room for sentiment in football, and if the budget for next season is well spent, we’ll be tilting at the title. Still, I’m sad to see the back of…
Tactical Report: 7th January 2012 Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Wrexham 1 FA Cup 3rd Round
What a magnificent performance by Wrexham, and what a fascinating insight into how good their defensive unit is. While a jocular Andy Morrell was exaggerating when he said his side didn’t touch the ball in the last half hour, there was an element of truth to his comment. Briighton penned his side back, but they were still…
They shout loudest, but represent nobody
Well done Wrexham AFC. Faced with an uncomfortable situation on Saturday, we were firm and clear in our message. We will not tolerate behaviour which is not worthy of the club. Last Saturday was a wonderful day, with Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds rounding off a tumultuous, historic week by finally getting to attend a…
Jonathan Cross: What Might Have Been
When he was released by Brian Flynn in 1998, few words were spared for Jonathan Cross, which was not awfully surprising. Cross was never particularly popular with the fans, or, it was claimed in some quarters, the players. However, his story is one of missed opportunity – if circumstances had been slightly different he might…
Bobby Grant’s Daft Lunge Was One Of The Moments of 2019
One of my favourite moments of the season so far came in the second half of the Chorley match on Boxing Day. An excellent move released Devonte Redmond on the right flank, and he drilled a great cross into the goalmouth. JJ Hooper, hunting for a hat trick, attacked it at the near post, knowing…
Manny Smith, Defender of the Faith
The cold, hard stats are remarkable. And yet they don’t begin to do justice to the contribution Manny Smith made to Wrexham over his five seasons at the club, or express the magnitude of our loss as we search for players to improve our position. To my eyes, in the last 15 years Wrexham have…
How Manny Smith Illustrates Gary Mills’ Failings
It seems odd to say it, but looking at Gateshead’s side is almost like seeing how this season could have been for Wrexham. After all, they started the season with the same number of players from Gary Mills’ 2015-16 squad as we did! I’ll get repetitive stain injury soon from going on about the damage…
Wrexham and Immigration: Keates Gets It; Atherton Doesn’t
Dean Keates isn’t from Wrexham, but he hit the nail on the head when he talked about the town on the Summer. Asked about his recruitment, he said he wanted to sign players who are “honest hard-working people” to match “the DNA of this community”. Perhaps our MP, Sarah Atherton, ought to sit down with…
The Unsolved Case of Nicky Deverdics
The departure of Nicky Deverdics this week came as no surprise to anybody, However, there’s a nagging doubt in the back of my mind that his time at The Racecourse could have panned out very differently. When Dean Keates brought him in, there was a sense of excitement. That process of injecting creativity into a…
The Wrexham AFC Bring Your Son To Work XI
With the signing of Devonte Redmond, Paul Edwards’ son, today, I thought it might be interesting to compile an XI of Wrexham players whose fathers also represented the club. It wasn’t easy – Redmond is joining a very select band – and frankly this side wouldn’t function very well if it could somehow be put…
Mike Fondop: The Incomplete Bomber
In Italy they call they have a phrase for it. Il Bomber. No matter what else you do, you need a Bomber to achieve your objective. Powerful, destructive, decisive, he’s the striker that delivers the end product, the goals to confirm your strategy. It’s the thing Wrexham lacked last season. Which brings me to the…
The Admirable Carrington
The usual noun applied to a player who has spent a long time at one club is “servant”. Players who stick around for a while are “great servants”, they’ve “served” their club well. It seems a belittling description: the player is portrayed as something subservient. Talented strikers, whose flashy exploits earn them a move to…
Wrexham AFC Women Write a New Page in Our History
Inevitably, the focus at a football club is on the first team, and this season is no different as we hope Sam Ricketts’ side can make a sustained push for promotion. But there’s more than one first team at Wrexham AFC this season. Even in the context of this ancient club’s history, what’s happening is…
An Open Letter to Wrexham County Borough Council
This letter was published on February 15th 2017 in The Leader I’d always assumed that people run for public office because they are driven by a desire to protect what is precious about their community. Your actions over the last few years have made me doubt that assumption. I hope you will prove me wrong…
Insanity Clause
Every Wrexham player has an extension clause in his contract. EVERY WREXHAM PLAYER HAS AN EXTENSION CLAUSE IN HIS CONTRACT! Gary Mills is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t he? Dean Keates deserves a lot of credit for improving the team he inherited. He deserves a great deal more credit when you consider he’s still…
The Drunken History of Wrexham AFC
Commentating for the club, and essentially being your own boss, is liberating. It was very different when I covered Wrexham’s games for Marcher Sound in the 1990s! You get nothing for free, of course, and a regular issue at the station was whether they’d be able to get the funding to cover the matches. There…
The Sausage Sandwich Game
I like Barrow. I’m not sure why – it’s one of those irrational soft spots you develop for teams which have no particular rationale behind them. They just exist. However, I think it’s the fact that a trip to Holker Street quite early on in our time in the Conference illustrated neatly one of the…
The Moment Kevin Wilkin Lost His Job
Here’s my column from last week’s Leader. It forms part of the paper’s comprehensive pre-match coverage every Friday, featuring interviews, an in-depth look at the opposition and lots of statistical analysis. All content in the column (c) http://www.leaderlive.co.uk. My first sentiment when I heard that Kevin Wilkin had been sacked was sorrow. He’s a genuinely…
Support Millwall FC’s cause and do Wrexham FC a favour
So, what does a man do when he has a train ticket to Braintree burning a hole in his pocket and no match to go to? There’s only one real option, a trip to see The Lions! Well, that was literally the only option as it was the only professional level match going ahead in…
Artell, Suarez and the Fine Art of Discipline
It’s been a good week for indignation. What a shame that the pointless fury of the nation has been directed against a bite in a football match rather than matters more appropriate for such ire, such as the refusal of police officers to testify at the Hillsborough inquiry. Instead the media has scrolled through the…
We Will Survive
At first I was afraid, I was petrified, When I saw Theo Bailey-Jones was in the Wrexham side. But then he did so many things that I never knew he could. He was good, He gave their full back twisted blood. Harris was back, Bishop found space, We even coped when their big striker kicked…
Wright Opens Up Sores As He Attacks The Trust
As I write a storm is brewing over Wrexham FC. Or, more accurately, the WST. Danny Wright has just tweeted his justification for leaving The Racecourse, and it makes for uncomfortable reading: So what to make of that? One has to immediately say that a popular player who leaves a club might feel the need…
Emad Bouanane: The Ultimate Cult Hero
If you look up “cult hero” in a dictionary, there’s no definition: just a picture of Emad Bouanane. Could anybody, in the long history of this football club, have encapsulated the notion of a cult hero quite as succinctly as Emad? The very fact that I use his first name to describe him rather than…
Lay Off Mayebi
Joslain Mayebi has come in for a lot of a lot of stick since last night, and it’s out of order. Okay, he’s divided opinions all season, the debate raging about whether he or Chris Maxwell should be first choice keeper. I’ve had plenty to say on the subject, advocating Maxwell’s case (here, here and…
I Cannot Disrespect Ze Cat
C is for Collin, he’s good enough for me CLAP CLAP C is for Collin, he’s good enough for me CLAP CLAP C is for Collin, he’s GOOD enough for me OHHHHHHHH Collin, Collin, plays for SKC CLAP CLAP CLAP (To the tune of C is for Cookie by Cookie Monster.) He only played thirteen…
The Only Way is Sussex
It’s a long time since I’ve so excited about a game as far in advance as this! In fact, to be honest, I’ve felt excited about the Brighton match from the moment the game came out of the bag! (If I’d been this guy, maybe I’d have even been excited before the draw was…
Which Non-League Club Should You Support?
Not sure which non-league team you should follow? Simply use our handy cut-out-and-keep flowchart and you’ll be guaranteed years of happiness, following the club that best suits your personality!
WST Take A Bow!
You know what? I’m kind of looking forward to tomorrow night! The result doesn’t really matter (in fact, bearing in mind that the last time the build up to a Wrexham game felt like this we fell apart against Luton, maybe I’m right not to build my hopes up!) But the fact is that something…
“Big As Signing Mullin”: FIFA give Wrexham a huge boost
My son told me about the FIFA ruling which lifted our adherence to transfer windows this season by saying it was as big as when we signed Mullin.