Conor Coady is backing Wrexham to make waves in the Championship this season, despite their recent defeat to Southampton. The newly-promoted side lost 2-1 at St. Mary's, with late goals from Ryan Manning and Jack Stephens sealing the win for the Saints.
Wrexham is now preparing to face Hull City in their EFL Cup first-round match at the SToK Cae Ras, followed by a home league game against West Brom. The club has seen a flurry of new signings, including Lewis O'Brien, Liberato Cacace, and Kieffer Moore, all joining the Hollywood-backed team this summer.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the celebrity owners, have overseen an impressive three successive promotions, propelling Wrexham from the National League to the Championship. Despite this success, the Opta supercomputer gives Wrexham only a 2.8% chance of automatic promotion for the 2025-26 campaign.
However, Coady remains optimistic, stating that his team is prepared to challenge the status quo and disrupt the division's top teams. "We're going to cope with it," Coady said. "We know what we are. We know how we're going to play, and we're here to upset and disrupt a few teams in this division."
He emphasized the importance of continuous improvement, adding, "We'll keep on trying to do that. We've shown we can play. We'll keep building, we'll keep improving. We have to improve, we have to get better. That's the biggest thing."
Opta's supercomputer's pre-season simulations suggest that Wrexham has a 9.6% chance of finishing in the top six, while there's a 20.2% chance of being relegated back to League One. The model also indicates that Wrexham faces the ninth-toughest start to the season among Championship clubs.
Phil Parkinson, Wrexham's boss, revealed that he hasn't been given any specific targets by Reynolds and McElhenney, with the focus instead on consistent progress. Coady believes the team has even bigger ambitions.
"It's amazing to see where this club has gone. I have so much respect for what this club has done since the National League to get to this point," Coady said. "But we're at a point now where we don't just enjoy being here. We want to improve and mix ourselves with teams like this [Southampton]." He concluded, "What we've got to do is take it one game at a time, but let's enjoy the ride."
