“Carried the team” – Historic Wrexham AFC transfer praised despite Mullin success story (Fan view)

Highlights

• Wrexham has made both bargain and big-money signings on their journey to League One, hitting the ground running despite the costs.
• Phil Parkinson’s team has been able to bring in some high-quality players, strategizing effectively to maintain competitiveness in the league.
• Fans believe that players like Paul Mullin and Andy Morrell have been pivotal in Wrexham’s success, with hopes for future Championship promotion.

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Wrexham’s rise from the National League to League One has seen the club sign a number of players at a bargain rate.

The Welsh side have certainly splashed the cash as well, but Phil Parkinson’s team have been able to make some major transfers for a relatively low cost.

The Red Dragons gained back-to-back promotions in the last two years, and are now back competing in the third tier for the first time since 2005.

Wrexham will have their sights set on competing in the top half of the table in their first season back in the division.

They have made a number of signings this summer in a bid to maintain a high competitive level for the step up to League One, including the arrivals of George Dobson, Ollie Rathbone and Dan Scarr, among others.

Wrexham’s best bargain signing

FLW’s Wrexham fan pundit Liam Grice believes that Paul Mullin has been a great bargain signing in recent years, with the forward powering their back-to-back promotions with his goal-scoring efforts.

However, he has picked Andy Morrell as the club’s best bargain signing from his time as a supporter, with the forward bagging 25 goals from 113 games from his four-year second stint at the club from 2010 to 2014.

“The obvious answer for the biggest bargain signing is probably quite a recent one, and that’s Paul Mullin on a free,” Grice told Football League World.

“Just getting a player who’d scored that many goals, top goal scorer in League Two, player of the year, and to get him on a free was a real statement of intent from the new ownership that they wanted to make a real go at it.

“But if I’m going to pick a player from the past, I think in 2010 we signed someone called Andy Morrell, who was one of my favourite players growing up, on a free from Bury.

“He played for the club previously, but that was when I really started getting into football.

“The way he carried the Wrexham team back then probably to heights they weren’t supposed to be in really impressed me when I was a younger fan.”

Wrexham’s League One ambition

Wrexham will be hoping to gain promotion to the Championship in the near future, but competition for a top two or six place is set to be fierce this year.

Consolidating their position in League One would be a positive step forward, highlighting how far they’ve come since Morrell’s time back at the club.

Morrell returned in 2010 after departing Bury, and spent his four years with Wrexham competing in the Conference Premier.

The team earned a second place finish in 2012, but were unable to gain promotion before his exit for Tamworth in 2014.

Wrexham’s transfer business has been key to recent success

Wrexham have made some exceptional deals since the recent takeover, and Mullin has been perhaps their strongest arrival.

The forward scored 38 goals in the 2022/23 campaign as the club gained promotion to League Two, and then bagged a further 24 in the fourth tier (all stats from Fbref).

While Morrell didn’t quite hit those heights during his time back with the Red Dragons, he was competing in a team that was struggling a lot more for resources compared to now.

The days of Morrell’s time are a far cry from where the team is now under Parkinson’s management.