Conor Coady cuts Wrexham stay short! Ex-Premier League defender joins Charlton six months after signing for the Red Dragons in £2m transfer

The 32-year-old centre-half was considered to be another coup for Wrexham when making his way to the Racecourse Ground, with his top-flight pedigree ready to be put to good use by Phil Parkinson.

The 10-cap England international started the Red Dragons’ opening five Championship games of the 2025-26 campaign, but saw them stumble out of the blocks. With defensive frailties being highlighted, Coady has been benched since mid-September.

The decision has now been taken for him to move on, freeing up space in Wrexham’s squad for potential January recruits. Parkinson has told the club’s official website: “I wish Conor all the best down at Charlton. He was keen to get back into first-team action between now and the end of the season - this gives him a great opportunity to go and do that.” 

Coady is stepping away from a promotion push and into a relegation battle, with Charlton currently sat 19th in the Championship table and just three points clear of the drop zone. Wrexham, meanwhile, are perched inside the play-off places.

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Coady joined the Red Dragons with the intention of helping them to push on towards the Premier League, with Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac overseeing the most ambitious of projects.

He told BBC Sport at the time: “When Wrexham first made contact and said what they wanted to do, straight away I felt... all I wanted to do was just play football and just be part of something good, be as big as we can and just try and make people better.

“No one was getting carried away and saying 'we want to be in the Premier League at the end of the season' and... I just love everything they were saying to me.

“There's so many clubs now going through a tough time and I'm part of one that wants to get better, it's so exciting it really is. It feels fresh, there's an excitement... people want to know what's going on at the club.

“There's a long way to go and people need to be doing things and building blocks, building one step at a time... because the hardest thing now is getting to the stars - you want to get to the Premier League because in the long run that's where the club wants to be.”

He went on to say, with lofty targets being set: “I'd love to play in the Premier League again, I want another crack at getting in there, another promotion, of course I want that in the long run.

“But do we need to make things better? Of course we do and I'm going to go in and try and make things better, make myself better, but what's most important is to make that club better. I love that I'm now part of that conversation, I love that people ask me about it at the football club, I love everything that that brings... I'm really enjoying it.

“Everyone in the club would say we are so close, we don't want to take a step back, but what we need to do now is build the right foundations now to take us to the next step - and that's what I'm loving being a part of.

“If we got ahead of ourselves of where we're at now because the club have signed a few players, or the club are saying they want to get here [the Premier League]... we do want to get there but we've got to make sure we're right when we do get there.

“That's what's so impressive about the club, we're not ahead of ourselves. We know where we are, we're so close to the next step but we've got to do it in the right way.”

Coady’s story does not appear to have a fairytale ending, with Wrexham looking to move in a different direction a matter of months after bringing the seasoned centre-half on board. Parkinson’s side, who have won five of their last seven Championship fixtures, will be back in action on Saturday when taking in a trip to troubled Sheffield Wednesday.