Wrexham have signed Danny Ward ahead of their 2025/26 Championship campaign. He brings a wealth of experience to the team, though fans have given somewhat mixed verdicts on the former Liverpool man’s arrival.
Danny Ward becomes the second signing of the summer for Wrexham, joining Ryan Hardie in making the move to the Racecourse.
And it’s a return to his former club, and to his hometown club too, after Ward previously left Wrexham for Liverpool in a £100,000 deal back in 2013.
He’s played mostly as a back-up goalkeeper since. Now 32, Ward has 44 caps for Wales but only ever made three Premier League appearances for Liverpool, whilst making 52 total appearances in seven years with Leicester City.
On Tuesday, Wrexham announced the signing of Ward on a two-year deal, but many Wrexham fans seemed confused by the signing, and some were even unimpressed with Ward who some fans say hasn’t showed all that much in recent seasons.
How much was Danny Ward earning at Leicester City?
One thing that a few fans pointed out on social media was that Ward is likely a high-earning player, having previously been at Liverpool and then having spent so long with Leicester City.
And quite alarmingly, Salary Sport put Ward’s weekly wages in the 2024/25 season at Leicester City as £27,000-a-week, which would put him well above any current player at Wrexham in terms of wages, and that’s for what looks set to be a second or third-choice goalkeeper next season.
Another source, Capology, even put Ward’s Leicester City wages at a staggering £40,000-a-week, which is more than £2million-a-year. Unless he’s taken a significant pay cut to return to Wrexham, it seems like a lot of money for someone who might barely play for the club.
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Are Wrexham increasing their wage bill this summer?
Wrexham could use all of a £39million allowance in 2025/26 and still remain within PSR guidelines. And with a reported £25million transfer budget this summer, we could really see some money thrown around.
But as ever, expect the club to put a lot of their resources towards wages, with more free agent signings like Ward expected and with Wrexham also looking to sign Premier League players on loan this summer.
And recently, journalist Alan Nixon reported that Wrexham could pay players up to £30,000-a-week in wages this summer, in a bid to sign the biggest and the best players that the Championship can attract.
That would put them near the top of the league in terms of wages alone. But whether Ward is on that much remains to be seen, though it’s also difficult to envisage him taking a huge pay cut to join when he could likely have been a third-choice goalkeeper elsewhere, potentially somewhere with a bigger wage structure than Wrexham.