Wrexham summer signing Ryan Hardie has had a stop-start to life in North Wales. Right now he’s nowhere to be seen.
Wrexham kicked off their summer transfer window with the signing of Ryan Hardie. Joining from Plymouth Argyle after their relegation from the Championship, Wrexham paid £700,000 for Hardie, who has since played four times in the Championship.
In his four games he’s yet to score. But the Scot has one goal in three Carabao Cup appearances for the Dragons, who currently sit in 15th place of the Championship table.
But the 28-year-old Hardie has been left out of the last two matchday squads by Phil Parkinson. In fact, Hardie has been left out of the last three matchday squads in the Championship, playing just four minutes of Wrexham’s Carabao Cup win over Reading last month.
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Is Ryan Hardie injured at Wrexham?
There’s nothing from Parkinson to suggest that Hardie is injured right now. Parkinson is usually very open when discussing players’ fitness and injury concerns but he’s made no mention of a possible injury to Hardie.
And the fact that he featured in the cup win against Reading suggests that he’s fit for action, given that that game was little over a week ago.
Paul Mullin theory may explain Ryan Hardie’s Wrexham omission
As was the case with Paul Mullin and indeed Ollie Palmer last season, Hardie might simply be down the pecking order.
In the second half of last season, Mullin and Palmer just completely fell out of the picture without any explanation, and it seems like the same has happened with Hardie.
After Hardie joined the club, several more strikers moved to the Racecourse, immediately shunting Hardie down the pecking order: Kieffer Moore, Josh Windass and Nathan Broadhead all signed, and all are among the goals already.
So it seems like Hardie is another Wrexham player to fall down the pecking order. But it’s through no fault of his own as he’s barely been given a chance to show what he can do.
That said, Hardie could return against Birmingham City with Parkinson revealing an injury blow for Josh Windass ahead of the game on Friday night.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see whether or not Hardie features in the squad for Friday night’s game.