Wrexham will need all the help they can get in order to make a success of their return to the second tier, and one player already on their books knows how to thrive in the Championship.
Phil Parkinson’s men defied all the odds this season to secure second place in League One and gain access to the Championship way ahead of schedule.
Wrexham now need to assemble a squad capable of surviving in the second tier. Or, if we’re to go on Rob McElhenney’s comments and the recent rumours linking the Red Dragons with Tom Cairney, there may be ambitions for far more.
Either way, it certainly helps to already have a player in the Wrexham squad who has a great Championship campaign under his belt, even if it was a few years ago.
Jay Rodriguez knows the Championship very well
Jay Rodriguez has had a long and very successful career, including ten seasons in the Premier League where he has scored 46 goals.
He’s enjoyed just as much success in the Championship, though. Eight campaigns in the second tier have produced 66 goals for the striker.
Most of those appearances and goals came for Burnley, but he’s now got the chance to return to the Championship and show he’s still got what it takes with Wrexham.
| Club | Appearances | Goals | Assists |
| Burnley | 310 | 76 | 24 |
| Southampton | 126 | 35 | 11 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 90 | 33 | 8 |
| Wrexham | 18 | 2 | 2 |
He will have to recapture his best form, though, which many would say was back in the 2011/12 campaign, where he scored 15 goals for the Clarets.
Rodriguez was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the Championship that season, as well as being crowned Championship Player of the Year in the Northwest Football Awards.
Funnily enough, though, his actual best season in the second tier, at least based on goals alone, came with West Brom in 2018/19. Rodriguez bagged a whopping 22 goals that year.
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Where does Jay Rodriguez stand in the pecking order at Wrexham?
Rodriguez arrived at Wrexham in January alongside record signing Sam Smith, and played regularly as the Red Dragons stormed to promotion.
The veteran striker would have hoped to have more of an impact in terms of output, though. Two goals and two assists from 18 appearances is not the worst return, but there was plenty of criticism from fans regarding Rodriguez in the back end of the campaign.
With Steven Fletcher departing already, and Paul Mullin likely to follow him out of the club, Rodriguez currently stands to be Wrexham’s second-choice striker.
But, we’d be very surprised if that’s the case come the start of the season, with multiple transfer targets already mentioned, and more to come as the summer rolls on.