Wrexham has been busy overhauling its roster this summer as it gears up for its first year in the EFL Championship since the 1981–82 season. The Welsh club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney has added several players in the summer transfer window—including a major signing last week.
The team announced Thursday that it signed midfielder Lewis O’Brien away from Nottingham Forrest, a Premier League club. The 26-year-old reportedly signed a three-year deal, though his salary and the transfer fee paid to acquire him are unclear.
O’Brien joins more than a handful of transfers with experience in the Championship or other top European soccer leagues. The team signed New Zealand’s Liberato Cacace, who last played with Empoli in Serie A, to a club-record $2.9 million (£2.16 million) less than two weeks ago.
Other signings include forward Ryan Hardie from Bolton (League One), midfielder Josh Windass from Sheffield Wednesday (EFL Championship), and keeper Danny Ward—a product of Wrexham Academy—from Leicester City (EFL Championship).
Another Coming?
It may not be the end of Wrexham’s overhaul. Manager Phil Parkinson said Tuesday the team has been targeting Kieffer Moore of Sheffield United (EFL Championship).
“Kieffer’s under contract at Sheffield United. He’s one of a number of players we’ve looked at over the summer,” Parkinson told the BBC.
Football transfer expert Graeme Bailey told Wrexham Insider that the Red Dragons are making a “big push” for Moore, but he said the 32-year-old striker is going to be “expensive.”
“[Wrexham] are pushing back on some of the numbers mentioned, but they do want him,” Bailey said.
However, the additions have also forced out a lot of mainstays—including fan favorites from the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham. Striker Paul Mullin has left the team, at least temporarily, to join League One club Wigan Athletic, while hometown product Jordan Davies announced in May that he was leaving the Red Dragons.
The major changes are a part of the business of the EFL. Wrexham jumped from the National League—where it stayed for 15 years before the Hollywood stars purchased the team in 2021—to the Championship in three years, the first club in EFL history to achieve three consecutive promotions.
