No Paul Mullin, Ben Foster retirement & an ill-planned transfer window: Inside Wrexham's underwhelming start to life in League Two

Things are never boring in north Wales and nothing summed this up better than Wrexham's League Two curtain-raiser against MK Dons at the Racecourse. The Red Dragons were 2-0 down inside 10 minutes and 4-1 down after an hour, with a pulsating game eventually ending 5-3 to the visitors.

To their credit, Wrexham responded a few days later by knocking cash-strapped Wigan Athletic out of the Carabao Cup on penalties, before stumbling to a 1-1 away draw at AFC Wimbledon.

Their first win since returning to the Football League was eventually earned against Walsall on August 15, but they were brought crashing back down to Earth by a completely bonkers draw with Swindon Town.

Losing 4-1 at home with little over half an hour on the clock, a 96th-minute leveller from Elliot Lee eventually earned them a 5-5 draw. It was a breathless affair but Parkinson was not happy at full time and a 1-1 stalemate with Barrow did little to raise his mood.

Since then there have been some green shoots of consistency, with back-to-back wins over rivals Tranmere and Newcastle U21s coming after a penalty-shootout defeat to Bradford in the Carabao Cup.

So, Wrexham are out of one of the domestic cups and have more draws than wins to start the League Two season. Any hopes of 'p*ssing the league' are firmly in the rear-view mirror.

The reasons for Wrexham's less-than-stellar start are multi-faceted. By far and away the biggest factor in their early struggles, though, has been the absence of their offensive talisman Paul Mullin.

Mullin was clattered by Manchester United goalkeeper Nathan Bishop during a pre-season friendly over the summer, with the collision leaving the striker with a punctured lung. It was a scary moment, with the 28 year old revealing: "I was trying to breathe in but nothing was happening. I couldn’t get air into my lungs. That’s when I knew it was bad. In that struggle for breath, with my lips turning blue, I accepted that this could be it for me. That’s how it felt. I couldn’t breathe properly for a few minutes."

Mullin has been Wrexham's standout player since arriving at the club from Cambridge United in 2021, scoring a ridiculous 74 goals in just 90 games. The 32 goals he plundered for Cambridge during the 2020-21 season also suggests that he would have had no issue with the heightened competition this campaign, with many tipping him to claim another Golden Boot this year.

But due to his grizzly injury, he has not made it onto the pitch at all so far. With him leading the line, there's little doubt that Wrexham would have been able to turn a few of their low-scoring draws into victories. Indeed, the Red Dragons have had little issue creating chances so far, registering 70 shots in League Two - the fourth highest in the division. They've just needed their star striker converting them.

There is light at the end of the tunnel at least, with Parkinson confirming that Mullin had returned to training recently. Wrexham will be desperate to get him back on the pitch as soon as possible.

Mullin is not the only high-profile star Wrexham have lost in recent times. Heading into the 2023-24 season, Ben Foster was full of fighting talk, backing he and his team-mates for a League Two title charge.

However, just five games into the new campaign, Foster announced that he was hanging up his gloves for a second time, having previously been tempted out of retirement by Reynolds and McElhenney earlier this year.

The news came as a shock to fans, team-mates and manager Parkinson, with the 'Cycling GK' explaining his decision in a recent interview.

"I just got to the point where I didn’t feel that I could do the team justice. I felt like my legs had slowed down, my sharpness, my spring, my reflexes. I felt I’d let too many goals in that I knew I should have been saving. When I got to that point I felt I was letting my team-mates down. I can’t do that, I can’t look at myself in the mirror. It’s the right decision, there’s no shame in it," he said.

Although Wrexham did ship a lot of goals with Foster between the sticks, 13 to be precise, it's hard not to feel that the ex-England international was being a little harsh on himself. But if Foster wasn't feeling comfortable anymore, he has made the right decision. Still, losing your first-choice goalkeeper so early in the season is bound to have significantly disrupted the squad.

Foster's departure instigated a mad dash to sign a replacement goalkeeper. And this haphazardness seemed to sum up Wrexham's approach to the most recent transfer window.

Early in the summer, Parkinson had preached caution, with the Red Dragons making just one signing before the season kicked off, bringing in Will Boyle from Huddersfield. However, after winning just one of their opening three games, the club's owners sprung into action, strengthening the squad with a string of new arrivals.

First, James McClean arrived at the SToK Racecourse from League One Wigan for a fee of around £250,000 ($314,000). Not content with this, the club also had a busy deadline day, completing a last-minute double swoop.

First, George Evans - capable of playing in central defence or midfield - arrived from Millwall. Wrexham then raided Arsenal for Arthur Okonkwo, signing the promising goalkeeper on loan, likely to replace Foster.

The Red Dragons will feel they should be toasting a trio of late arrivals, though. Just before midnight UK time on deadline day, Harrogate Town published an article on their official website, headlined: "Luke Armstrong departs for Wrexham."

A few minutes later, the Robins themselves took to social media to allay any fears that the required paperwork had not been submitted on time. However, by the following morning, trouble was brewing. A few hours later, Wrexham's worst fears were confirmed, when they were informed by the EFL that, contrary to their own belief, they had not managed to rubber stamp Armstrong's £500,000 ($625,000) arrival before the deadline.

In the days that followed Wrexham considered appealing against the judgement, but they have since decided to accept that their record signing would not be completed.

The whole affair was messy and entirely avoidable. Wrexham had months to bring in a new striker following news of Mullin's injury, yet it took until the final moments of the transfer window for them to spring into action.

The fact that they offered such an exorbitant fee also proves that there had been money to spend all summer long. Why they were so reserved in the early stages is a mystery, with the slow signing of Evans - whom GOAL identified as a perfect addition to the squad as far back as July - also puzzling.

Had Wrexham been more decisive, the squad would have been better balanced and they might have made a more impressive start to the season.

Their struggles are not solely down to off-field forces, though. Those players selected for Wrexham's opening run of games should also take responsibility for their questionable defending.

The first two strikes they conceded this season against MK Dons - an own goal and another that came as a result of slack marking and slow reactions - are typical of the Red Dragons' lack of steel so far. Indeed, no League Two side has let in more so far.

It's not just one type of goal they've been conceding either. While crosses into the box have been dealt with meekly, there's also beena cavernous gap between the back three and the midfield, leaving Wrexham vulnerable down the centre of the pitch. Conceding five times against Swindon was the nadir, with these shortcomings being brutally exposed.

At least the arrivals of Evans and Okonkwo suggests that Parkinson has identified and acted on the problem. And, to both players credit, Wrexham were defensively sound against Newcastle U21s in the EFL Trophy when the pair made their debuts.

As much as Wrexham have hardly helped themselves with their defending, they've also had to contend with some highly impressive displays from their opposition this season. Much of this can be explained away fairly simply. On paper, League Two is a higher standard than the National League.

Then again, it's hard to escape the feeling that teams are especially motivated to beat Wrexham this season. While on balance, Reynolds and McElhenney have likely been a net positive for UK football, the media darlings have made few friends among their fellow League Two clubs due to their heavy spending and incessant media coverage. They have attracted ire from rival fans for failing to respect the EFL Trophy 'boycott', instead registering a record attendance against Newcastle.

A quick scroll through social media after Wrexham lose a game illustrates this point perfectly. When this happens, opposition fans are quick to express their schadenfreude, taunting the Red Dragons with jibes like: 'can't wait to watch this back on Disney!'

Taking this atmosphere into account, it's reasonable to suggest that many League Two clubs will be heading into games against Wrexham desperate to cut FC Hollywood's ego down to size.

And, of course, the elephant in the room. While touring the United States in pre-season was an unequivocal commercial success and a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the club's staff, players and newfound fans, was it really the best preparation for a gruelling 46-game league season? Perhaps not, even if they did take measures to minimise its potential impact on the players.

There was a portion of Wrexham's longer-term fans who pointed this out during the summer, but the prospect of playing against some of the Premier League's biggest sides meant their complaints fell on deaf ears.

Now that they've started poorly, their critics will predictably question the wisdom of such an extended, draining overseas trip so close to the season's start date. However, Wrexham were always trading off accelerating their off-field growth at the expense of less-than-deal on-pitch preparations, and it's likely their owners have few regrets.

Wrexham's explosion in popularity was not viewed as a potential hindrance last season as results on the pitch helped create a tidal wave of momentum. But now that things aren't going entirely swimmingly, it's natural that questions are asked.

There's no reason to be overtly negative at least. Mullin is not too far away from returning to the fold, which will go a long way to covering up the disappointment of missing out on Armstrong.

In addition, the arrivals of Evans and Okonkwo should shore up the defence significantly, while Wrexham's deep squad will give them a tangible advantage over their rivals when the fixtures start to pile up.

Going out of the Carabao Cup was disappointing, but lessening the game load can be seen as a long-term positive. Rock-bottom Doncaster Rovers await in their next game too, giving Wrexham the perfect opportunity to piece together their first back-to-back League Two victories of the season.

That is the key for Parkinson and Co now: building momentum. The Wrexham hype train has ploughed on undeterred since the start of last season and they need to rediscover some of this magic if they want to secure one of the three automatic promotion spots.