The redemption arc is one of the most satisfying tropes in storytelling, and Arthur Okonkwo has gifted “Welcome to Wrexham” with a beauty!

Last December he suffered the most horrible of indignities at Swansea.

A live game on TV, a Welsh derby, a high stakes game in a feisty atmosphere. The match itself hadn’t lived up to the occasion by any stretch of the imagination: it was one of our worst performances over a remarkable season, and the hosts were no better.

Not that that matters. I pity the fools who think football is entertainment; it’s nothing of the sort!

It’s an exercise in caring, hoping and suffering. You need to be fully committed to the outcome if you’re going to enjoy it.

The downside is when that outcome suddenly changes for the worse, in the most shocking manner.

A drab 1-1 draw seemed the inevitable outcome of the match when, deep into added time, Swansea launched a hopeful ball into our goalmouth.  What came next was heart-breaking.

Okonkwo made a mistake, but it wasn’t a run of the mill error. It was so horrible, it was almost comical.

The ball slipped from his hands, dropped between his legs and bounced away behind him, leaving a simple finish in the goalmouth to decide the derby in Swansea’s favour.

It was utterly humiliating, and there was nothing Okonkwo could do but stand there and take it. That must have been the mother of unhappy journeys home.

What came next, crowned by the return match last Friday, illustrated why he is one of the best young goalkeepers in the country.

Firstly, the fans rallied around him. Quite right, too.

Okonkwo has been magnificent for us, and we’ve been invested in him from the outset. Crowned King Arthur, he has delighted his subjects with two and a half years of excellence between the sticks, and when he suffered his catastrophe all that credit in the bank meant something.

With the fans’ backing, he put it behind him. There was no guarantee he’d manage that. Goalkeeping isn’t just a physical test; it’s equally a mental trial.

All keepers make mistakes, and they are defined by how they respond to them. It was time for Okonkwo to show what he was made of.

And he did.

The following game he made a couple of sharp saves and his handling was reassuringly certain.

The Swansea result seemed to mark a turning point for the whole team, as we embarked on a series of wins which turned into our most impressive run of the season, as we have developed from a robust side who can’t be pushed around to a unit which can move the ball around intelligently, taking the game to the most illustrious of opponents.

Okonkwo has been central to that and grabbed the headlines in January when we knocked Premier League Nottingham, Forest out of the FA Cup with his heroics in the penalty shoot-out.

He stopped another penalty last week against Hull, but saved his best for a game which must have been looming large in his imagination.

Swansea at home.

If he wanted to banish memories of his mistake in South Wales and treat it as just another game he will have been reminded of what happened by the raucous away support situated to his left as the game kicked off, loudly providing him with some less-than-subtle aides-memoire!

His response was emphatic. With the game scoreless the Championship’s top scorer, Zan Vipotnec, was put clear on goal through the middle. A striker full of confidence, with 17 goals to his credit in the league this season, and he did everything right.

Calmly, he carried the ball into the box and, when he entered Okonkwo’s range, making the possibility of racing out to challenge at his feet an option, he slotted the ball firmly past Okonkwo and into the bottom corner.

Except he didn’t manage the last bit.

That’s not down to Vipotnec. His finish was clinical.

It was down to the excellence of Arthur Okonkwo.

What came next was a combination of the qualities which have made him a Wrexham hero. His reflexes were remarkable, his anticipation and ability to read the striker’s body language perfect, and he has the natural advantage of incredibly long limbs.

The TV footage doesn’t do it justice: you had to be there.

The ball was past him but somehow, he sprang, stretched and scooped the ball away.

George Thomason completed the job, getting to the loose ball first and launching it to safety.

Arthur wasn’t finished. He made two more fine saves to drive home the point. He’d suffered humiliation against Swansea and bounced back to showcase his excellence against them three months later.

Okonkwo’s narrative isn’t just about redemption though. A professional athlete needs to show resilience, as he undoubtedly has done, but you can’t build a reputation on continually bouncing back from hardship because that means you’re making errors with similar frequency!

When many genuine club legends have been shed by the velocity of our climb up the divisions, he has been good enough to keep pace with the club’s development.

He could have gone elsewhere after his superb stint between the sticks in our League Two promotion season.

On loan from Arsenal, The Gunners had signalled their intention to release him at the end of the season, and Okonkwo had taken his opportunity to gain experience and showcase his talent at the SToK Cae Ras with gusto.

Championship sides were reportedly interested, which made sense. Okonkwo had shown he was a fine keeper, too good for the fourth tier, and with age on his side, leaping up the leagues seemed appropriate.

He took his time making his mind up, as any sensible person would when faced with an array of tempting choices. You should see me at a decent buffet! However, he chose us and is now reaping the rewards.

Taking the plunge and signing for a second tier side two seasons ago would have allowed him to skip a stage in his progress up the pyramid, but at what cost?

Surely, he would have been a reserve keeper at a Championship club to begin with; we all know this is the point at which clubs have enough money to spend heavily on young talent and see if they will develop as hoped.

By sticking with us, he enjoyed another season of experience and development and maintained his terrific career trajectory with another promotion.

If he’d moved, he might have been still sitting on the bench waiting for an opportunity by now, or even back on loan in the lower divisions after his club bought the next exciting young keeper in line last summer to play the role of back-up. 

Now, he stands on the brink of closing the circle and returning to Arsenal as an opponent in the league!

A question I’ve been asked with increasing frequency in recent weeks sums up how exciting our position in the league is, and what a fundamental part of that journey Okonkwo is:

“Do you think Arthur is good enough to play in the Premier League?”

Taking as read the hidden context – Wrexham fans have become optimists, spurred on by our incredible run of promotions to look forwards to a stint at the top table – it’s a question which I answer in the affirmative.

The top tier of English football is also the best in the world. Plenty of good players get a chance to play at that level and certainly have the ability to succeed, but it can chew talent up and spit it out.

You need to be gifted to thrive in the Premier League, and there’s no doubt Okonkwo is that.

You also need to have the grit and resilience to bounce back when things don’t go your way and show everyone that one slip doesn’t define you.

All good goalkeepers need that, and that’s why my money is on Okonkwo.