Phil Parkinson reflects on his career, life at Wrexham, owners, players and how rest of the league reacts

Phil Parkinson reflects on his career, life at Wrexham, owners, players and how the rest of the league reacts to his current side.

In an interview via Sky Sports One and One, manager Phil Parkinson talks about what life at the club is like with the Welcome to Wrexham documentary being filmed, their owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, and a lot more.

It was a rather insightful 20 minute interview, which can be watched in full below, covering a number of topics…

Interviewer: Phil thanks for joining us our little space on this podcast talking Wrexham but also the fact that a thousand competitive games as a manager you’ve achieved so far and you’re still going strong and at this moment in time you’re probably having the best time ever?

Phil Parkinson: Yeah certainly enjoying my time at Wrexham it’s been a fantastic experience um since day one challenging at the start um but backed by great owners and a lot of good people at the club and uh yeah it’s been been really enjoyable to not just see the team progress but the whole area be uplifted

Interviewer: did it take much convincing for you to because it was National League to start with wasn’t it and and you were very much a league manager

Phil: Yeah at the time obviously because like you say you know just left Sunderland and I’d never managed in the National League before and I didn’t know a lot about the league and you know people say football’s football but it’s important to understand the level you’re going into so that always a gamble but when I spoke to the owners um went through the plans in more detail going forward you know I couldn’t resist coming on board and thought you know to be part of something you know to to build a club back up because obviously 15 years out of the EFL and the hurt and the pain and the supporters in the whole area had you know to to take the responsibility to try and be the man to to bring the club back into the league was was a great challenge I couldn’t turn down

Interviewer: With the opportunities before Wrexham and in the clubs that you’d worked and when you make those decisions to take on a project or a team does gut feeling have a lot to do with it intuition have a bit a lot to do with it

Phil: Yeah I think you’ve got to weigh up everything in in when you decided on your next club and you know I speak to a lot of managers you know when managers are out work and it’s a big call because you know sometimes managers can wait too long to go back in and then they almost get forgotten sometimes people jump in too quickly at the first opportunity and it’s not the right one so it’s a careful balance to strike but I think the key for me was you know speaking to the owners and understanding their overall ambitions and and passion for the club and the area why they bought the club and looking at the history of the club and the size the catchment area the potential but also how much the club means to to the people of Wrexham so weighing up everything you know I thought well what a great opportunity and it’s turned out well so far

Interviewer: I know when they talk about longevity and management and you’ll know the managers that you speak to that managers don’t get much time these days do they in any particular club especially lower down in in the leagues, did do you think you’d still be here after that initial phone call all those years ago?

Phil: Well I mean when I came me the plan was to to be part of the the journey for an extended period of time because you know obviously the the owners and myself the aim was not just to get into division 2 it was can we keep improving and keep climbing the leagues, but of course as you know there’s many pitfalls along the way as a manager and at the start it didn’t really go all our own way but I think up to Christmas in the first year that pre-season, Covid hit pre-season disrupted me getting to know players you know I look back at that and I think we did well to still being in contention with the players we had available and it wasn’t until the January where we were able to add a few additions to strengthen the squad up

Interviewer: It’s a different type of player though here isn’t it I suppose because of the spotlight that’s on a League One club as it is at this moment in time the type of player that you bring here obviously has to be a good player but what extra characteristics does that person have to have?

Phil: I think we brought players in who used to have the expectation of winning and the demands at clubs before and being part of promotion campaigns because there is expectations here at Wrexham and you’ve got to be able to handle that and also players who you know will enjoy the kind of exposure the club gets outside of football but be able to separate that from actual the most important thing which is which is training well and playing at your maximum you know when you’re selected so yeah we look longer hard about the characters you know we look to recruit and I feel that’s taken us a long way getting a strong dressing room of good lads who understand what the club’s all about and and have represented and wore the jersey the right way

Interviewer: Has that always been your kind of dressing room at the clubs that you’ve been in before Sunderland, Hull, Bolton, Colchester, have you always looked for that dressing room strength?

Phil: Yeah I think football doesn’t change people think it does but you need good reliability in your group because throughout the course of the season you’re going to have defeats you’re going to have players going to be left out the team um it’s never kind of completely plain sailing even in promotion winning seasons that there’s there’s times last season uh I think around the January February period we kind of had a dip um so you need people who are going to stand strong through when the pressure is on a little bit and come through the other side of it and yeah so of course building the dress room right and getting that balance I feel is key for for longevity throughout the course of the season

Interviewer: You talked about adjustment with the spotlight being on Wrexham and how players deal with it have you had to adjust do you like that. Did it take a while to get used to?

Phil Parkinson: Yeah I think the first month or so with the cameras because at the start there was a lot more kind of training ground you know they at the training ground a lot now they’ve they’ve seen us enough at the training ground. No so at first yeah of course it’s a bit like you know this is different but the most important thing is that you know myself and Steve Parkin we um built up a great relationship with the producers of the documentary and there’s an element of trust there because you know we decided just to be ourselves and just get on with it and and trust the the producers and um everybody involved to tell the story and they’ve done a great job you know the documentary has been hugely successful which is the skill of of the people behind the scenes but it’s also because of the success and the drama the team’s created over the last few years

Interviewer: It’s a real thing though now isn’t it I mean 10-20 years ago it would never have happened but different clubs different crews and something at the start of every season or at the end comes out

Phil Parkinson: Yeah that’s a good point that you you kind of most well not most teams but a lot of teams have got some sort of documentary and you know when you go for a job now as a manager whether a young manager or an experienced manager it’s part and parcel and you’ve got to learn to to deal with that and yeah but we’ve enjoyed that as well and you know when we went to the USA in the last two summers and it’s seeing the popularity of the club over there you’ve almost got to be there to to understand that and and also getting to know the the producers over in LA for the documentary and get their understanding of their story of building an Emmy Award winning documentary and the success it’s brought them so there’s a lot of factors have gone into play to make it successful it’s been done very skillfully and it’s very authentic I think that’s why it’s been popular because you know it’s not guarded at all it’s just it’s telling the story as it is and so far they’ve done that well and the team has responded well

Interviewer: I just wondered what like your colleagues you know throughout the leagues and and the contacts that you have and the managers that you’ve been involved with in the past and now who you you know your opponents I what do they make of it all is that when when you’re coming up again is it always like just polite conversation or do you do you think they kind of look look at you differently?

Phil Parkinson: I think after the game sometimes when we’ll having you know drink with the opposition manager which we still do

Interviewer: It doesn’t happen very often not in the Premier League that happen

Phil Parkinson: No not in the Premier League but yeah now it’s tradition home and away to invite the opposition stuff in so they’ll always have a chat with us and say how you finding how are you finding it Etc and picking our brains on on what it’s been like because it’s different you know when you know we’re looking to sign players have been speak to a player today about bringing him to the club and just talking to him about you know this is a different club to be at at the moment because of the documentary and you know our owners and the ambition and you know it’s a very exciting place to be

Interviewer: That should be is that like a key part of it though do you can you I always remember Chris Wilder saying you know when you speak to a player you kind of know if they want to play for you straight away do you get that with the players that you speak to that they want to come straight away do they have to think about making that decision or is that part of the attraction of coming to Wrexham

Phil Parkinson: You know this year particularly the players we’ve gone for you know we’ve been competing with clubs with also great histories you know and big clubs in this division and and bottom end Championship clubs so it’s been tougher to get players not that they don’t want to come here but there’s always other options but yeah I like to to have a good sit down with players and explain to them about the club, now obviously when I first came here that I knew about the documentary and where the club was going but I had to sell the vision because it was at the early stages but since then the Wrexham story is out there so a lot of players I speak to will have done the homework and and know a lot about the club before we have that meeting so the fact that the at the meeting when we’re talking about the the football side of it tells me that they’re really interested

Interviewer: How does this then compare to when for example the memories that you’ve created so far here and the celebrations that you’ve had and the cup final against Swansea, I was pitchside I vividly remember you walking with the team out Bradford, you’d beaten Arsenal, you’d beaten Aston Villa to get there those sort of big cup upsets and then the whole visualisation that greeted you as you came out with the flags and the banners on the right hand side as you were looking to the pitch how do those moments compare or can you compare them to what you’ve had here because those are moments that stick with you forever

Phil Parkinson: Oh without doubt I think the Bradford story for me and Steve is similar because we took over Bradford City when they’re in relegation trouble at the start of a season and we had to rebuild the club backup and you know Bradford is a great City well supported club and to to see that area lifted by the success of the football team was absolutely fantastic and I’ll never forget the memories We had at Bradford you know the cup up sets the Wembley appearance the playoff final victory and building that club up and it’s there’s a lot of similarities really in terms of the stature of the club and the potential and the passion of the supporters behind their team

Interviewer: But then when you look at the other flips side of what you’ve had to deal with Bolton, everyone talks about the job you did at Bolton, but the difficulties that you had to go through there just to keep that club where it is and and put it in a position that it was so close to going under so you had to keep that ticking over

Phil Parkinson: Yeah very very tough times at Bolton you know and very proud of that period in in a strange way because um you know that club was so close to going out business and for a club with the history of Bolton Wanderers to to no longer be in existence would have been a travesty but it did happen to Bury you know in the same season Bury a club I played for and both clubs were in similar situations at the time and we made by the fingertips able to play the my part and Steve’s part in in keeping everything going and until Sharon Brittain bought Bolton and you know I was so pleased that they got such a great owner because the club deserved someone like Sharon to to run the club and but yeah it was talk about a roller coaster I think the Bolton experience certainly kind of comes into that category because when the players don’t get paid for five months

Interviewer: They come to you

Phil Parkinson: Yeah and you know having to get the players and the team motivated to compete in the Championship when the staff and the players aren’t getting paid and you know they were tough times but they make you stronger and um you know I’ve got a lot of respect for the people at Bolton because always behind the scenes at football clubs that there’s people who’ve been there for years who the lifeblood of the club who play their part as we’ve got here you know we’ve had it here through the tough times there’s a lot of people I’ve got to know behind the scenes who’ve played the part and make sure there is a Wrexham football club and there is a Bolton Wanderers and and so pleasing for those people here now at Wrexham to see the team success

Interviewer: But I also think from a wider picture that perhaps that there isn’t that understanding of how exhausting sometimes being a manager can be

Phil Parkinson: Yeah it’s all encompassing I think that’s absolutely you know key you know you need good family to be a manager an understanding family because you might be with your wife but you might not be focusing on what she’s saying she’ll probably kill me when she hears this but you’re always thinking especially in the transfer window as well because you know everybody wants to improve the squad is competitive to get players in you want and you know we just talking about this more as a staff you know we’ve had a couple of decisions to make and every decision is a tight one it’s never completely obvious who you should go for or completely obvious you should pay that extra, it’s always tight calls have got to be made and as well as preparing for games that puts a lot of of onus on the manager and the staff but the great thing here you know we’ve got so many good people you know above us who who are very experienced football operators and it’s been great to lean on those people

Interviewer: But it’s a different kind of exhaustion maybe perhaps or the way you look at it because of the scrutiny in these moments that you’re under because you’re doing the best it may look like everything is brilliant here at Wrexham and it is but you’ve also got to make sure that it’s the right decisions that you’re making

Phil Parkinson: Yeah exactly and you know the the onus is on us to make those calls and we’re at a unique position really because obviously we’ve got to do everything we can to try and Achieve that third promotion because

Interviewer: Which is ultimately what what the most important thing is

Phil Parkinson: Yeah exactly because there’s this chance won’t come along again for a club to achieve third promotion but we knew when we came into the division how competitive it was you know a couple of weeks ago people were saying oh it’s us Wrexham and Birmingham and I was saying don’t be discounting other teams because there’s still so much of the season to play for Huddersfield have spent big in this transfer window already and I’d imagine they’ve got more business to do so it’s very competitive but we find ourselves in a position and we give ourselves a great chance and a platform so of course like we say the transfer window is important to make the right decisions and sometimes those decisions may not be to do as much as people on the outside would think you would be doing um and have an understanding that we’ve got players who’ve come back from injury we’ve got Jack Marriott who scored five goals in the opening seven or eight games, he’s now back from injury so that’s like having a new signing for us so we got a factor Jack now back into the equation as well

Interviewer: And just I’m smiling because when you say like that’s ultimately what you’ve got to do and you mentioned there Wycombe who you’re up against as well and Birmingham are there as well and you and Birmingham obviously have you know the the stardust sprinkles all over you but the likes of Wycombe and Huddersfield they’re as competitive as you are but without that backing that they have so it goes to show it it’s quite level

Phil Parkinson: Yeah without doubt you look at some of the teams

Interviewer: Just because you’ve got who you’ve got doesn’t mean doesn’t mean anything

Phil Parkinson: This division everybody said this year is probably the most competitive it’s been for years and obviously we’ve always already mentioned Bolton you know losing player finalists last year Charlton obviously not probably having the start first half of the season they wanted but a huge Club at this level Barnsley always in around the playoffs and the list goes on and then on top of that you get a Wycombe who who probably overachieved made some really intelligent decisions in terms of their recruitment and find themselves up there and when you’re up there at this stage of the season you deserve to be so absolute serious contenders and got some really good players so yeah that’s what football’s all about it’s really competitive but we’re enjoying competing at this level and you know said to the lads earlier that you know we’ve worked so hard as a group to get to nights like Thursday when we’re playing Birmingham and we talked of you know alongside the clubs like Birmingham of being a Premiership club, you know two three years ago we competing in the National League at Aldershot away and and Boreham Wood wood and grounds like that now we’re going to Birmingham away in the season in front of nearly 30,000 people so we’ve come a long way quickly um but it doesn’t mean we’re not ambitious to to take that next step

Interviewer: Can I ask the emotional connection that you’ve had with all the clubs that you’ve been involved with would this be one of the strongest

Phil Parkinson: Oh without without doubt because you know the emotion of when we got promoted out the National League you know I could remember seeing the supporters faces like that was it was just incredible I remember leading up to that game you know bumping into supporters and then telling me their Journey as a Wrexham fan everyone was telling me their story and you know at at times yeah I had to kind of I need to take myself away from this to keep my focus but yeah the sheer joy emotion on people’s faces when we got out of the National League because what you’ve got to remember that the club had had a lot of near misses as well and because Notts County ran us so close you know we had to get 111 points to to win the league which is incredible when you look back but when you’ve been so close as and you’ve been following the team through those years you think oh here we go again you know support said it’s the same as when Jamie Vardy scored all their goals for Fleetwood now Langstaff scoring all the goals goals with not count it’s going to happen to us again and you have to kind of put those negative kind of thoughts out your mind but you could feel the tension you honestly the day we went up the tension in this ground was something I can still feel now

Interviewer: And on the owner’s side of things we hear of takeovers and investment comes in across all the English leagues, you know Premier League obviously but filtering down the lower leagues as well but they seem to have that emotional connection as well you kind of feel they’re going to be here for an awful long time maybe forever

Phil Parkinson: Well I think they’ve enjoyed the the story so far they’ve completely bought into love watching the team if they’re not here obviously which is difficult because of the work commitments they’re watching every game over over in the USA and yeah I think them not just their families as well because it impacts your families when you own a football club so they’ve really enjoyed it and they they’re really determined to kind of set out to do what they promised at the start and

Interviewer: Which would be incredible

Phil Parkinson: Yeah I think the the but not just the football side but lifting the area I think that’s been been the key and um and raising the profile of the club and they’ve certainly done that

Interviewer: Well the one thing Phil you do do you celebrate it

Phil Parkinson: Well when it does happen without doubt listen I think in football that when you promotions are hard to come by you know it really is a marathon season and like I said even in promotion seasons and you know when I’ve done interviews before for manager jobs I always say to people that just remember even in seasons when I’ve been promoted the player manager there’s times it doesn’t go well and that’s when you need support that’s when you need people around you to support you support us to kind of understand the overall picture um because yes it’s uh the because we had that season where we got 111 points it was almost like it’s the norm we’re going to win nearly every week but obviously as you go up the leagues it becomes more more and more competitive but yeah so far we’re doing well and like I said when you do get promotion it’s important to celebrate because uh um it’s a group of people coming together not just on the pitch off the pitch and and in the stands as well we wish you well for the rest of the season