Wrexham’s recruitment under Phil Parkinson has been a story of success after success, but one potential deal could have been a real mistake.
Wrexham have accelerated from the National League to League One in rapid fashion with Phil Parkinson masterminding the rise.
Backing from Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds has certainly helped with Wrexham able to bring in some quality players to win back-to-back promotions.
Paul Mullin, Elliot Lee, James McClean, George Dobson and Arthur Okonkwo are great examples of players who may not have signed for many other clubs in Wrexham’s league at the time of arrival.
The financial backing from McElhenney and Reynolds has been vital but Wrexham have largely managed to find the right characters to deal with the hype around the club.
There haven’t been many flops in this Wrexham rise but one player who slipped through the net is now struggling in League Two.
Wrexham missed out on Luke Armstrong
Cast your minds back to the summer transfer deadline day in 2023 and Wrexham were looking to add another striker.
Steven Fletcher ended up signing on a free transfer after the deadline, but only after Wrexham suffered a transfer failure.
Wrexham made a move to sign striker Luke Armstrong from Harrogate Town having seen him score 28 across two League Two seasons.
The deal appeared to be done with Wrexham paying around £500,000 according to the Daily Mail.
Wrexham’s documentation wasn’t completed in time though, meaning Armstrong missed out on his move to Wrexham and was forced to stay put at Harrogate.
Fletcher’s impact meant Wrexham parked a move for Armstrong and watched on as he completed a January move to Carlisle United.
Armstrong suffered relegation to League Two as Wrexham won promotion to League One, and his fortunes at Carlisle are going from bad to worse.
Wrexham relief over Armstrong miss
We covered Aaron Hayden’s time with Carlisle earlier this week with Mike Williamson’s side sitting bottom of League Two.
Armstrong is part of that team too and he has managed just two goals in 15 appearances.
Armstrong has even been left out of the matchday squad of late with boss Williamson explaining his ‘brutal’ decision to the News and Star.
“It’s brutal – it’s the worst part of this job letting people and letting players down,” said Williamson.
“But ultimately when I looked and went through the process of elimination we had a lot of players – wing-backs, eights and fours – that I knew were going to get tired and that needed to change.
“I do openly say I love Luke and everything he does and how hard he works and his quality is unquestionable. But I just made decisions based off what I thought we might need to come up,” he added.
Armstrong could have been part of the Wrexham journey but that late paperwork has set off a run of events which now sees him on the fringes at Carlisle.
Perhaps Armstrong could have been more of a success under Parkinson than in a struggling Carlisle side, but Wrexham will be relieved that £500,000 wasn’t spent on him – and will certainly feel that the money has been better spent since that deal collapsed.