Wrexham may well be set to embark upon a new era with a disappointing start to the campaign now being prolonged as they hover in the bottom half of the Championship table after 13 matches.

Wrexham succumbed to a slender but frustrating 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Friday, leaving them 18th in the second-tier table with just three victories in their 13 matches so far this season.

Under the management of Phil Parkinson, the Red Dragons have risen from non-league football all the way to the second-tier, narrowly missing out on the top six and the play-off places on the final day of last season.

With more money spent over the summer and the expansion of the play-offs from six to eight teams, the expectation within the increasingly demanding fanbase would be that Wrexham would again sustain a promotion challenge this season.

With Parkinson seemingly failing to get what he wants out of his team anywhere near to a consistent basis, it could well be that Wrexham take the emotional decision to part company with the former Bolton Wanderers boss. Reports from Alan Nixon suggest as much, with the journalist indicating that Parkinson is failing to hit a point target set upon him.

If that is to be the case, as it now feels likely that it is, FLW has taken a look at six potential replacements that the Wrexham hierarchy, led by Hollywood-based owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, should be considering.

Steve Cooper

Born in Pontypridd in South Wales, Steve Cooper began a brief playing career with Wrexham back in the late-1990s before beginning his coaching career by working with the academy at Wrexham ahead of moving into his jobs with the England U16 and then England U17 teams.

In club management, Cooper began at Swansea City and helped them twice reach the top six and the play-off places before departing for Nottingham Forest, where he oversaw their promotion back to the Premier League before keeping them up, too.

Things went awry at Leicester City, albeit the Foxes didn’t improve after his departure as they began a spell that would now see them play League One football, but things were again better when Cooper went abroad, leading Brondby to a creditable fourth place finish in the Danish Superliga last season.

Cooper may not be the most glamorous appointments for headline-seeking Wrexham, but Cooper is a good coach with a very strong record and would be a man to be trusted to turn Wrexham into a promotion challenger this season.

Carlos Cuesta

A bit of a more rogue shout would be for Wrexham to expand their horizons and head abroad for a new manager with Carlos Cuesta, who left Parma of Serie A during the recent international break, a potentially shrewd pickup.

Born in Majorca, Carlos Cuesta made his way into coaching with the youth team setups of both Atletico Madrid and Juventus, becoming Mikel Arteta’s assistant coach at Arsenal in the summer of 2020.

The Balearic Islander eventually became Parma boss last summer, and he performed well as they eased themselves into a mid-table position with impressive defensive performances throughout the campaign. Those defensive performances led to the sales of goalkeeper Zion Suzuki and centre-back Alessandro Circati to Aston Villa and Benfica respectively over the summer, though.

Unable to match the same level of quality with a back-line that consisted of Suzuki and Circati, Cuesta opted to depart the Ennio Tardini after a five-match winless start to the campaign and perhaps to preserve his reputation amid a likely relegation battle for a Parma side stripped of their best assets.

Forging a coherent defence with excellent tools at hand for the level is something that the still only 31-year-old Spaniard should be capable of doing at the Racecourse Ground – and it would be a bold appointment for Wrexham to make as they begin a new phase of their wealthy era.

Rob Edwards

Another domestic option that should come under consideration is that of former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Rob Edwards, who, born in Telford, went on to earn 15 caps for Wales as a player.

As a coach, Edwards followed a similar route to that of Cooper as he coached England’s U16 side before leading Forest Green Rovers to the 2021-22 League Two title with a relentless run for three quarters of that season before taking the foot off the gas late on.

After that campaign, Edwards departed New Lawn for Watford but, such is the volatility of that role for a manager, he lasted just a couple of months before pitching up at The Hornets’ arch-rivals Luton Town.

At Kenilworth Road, Edwards earned a second promotion in successive seasons, this time helping The Hatters earn one of the most unlikely ascensions to the Premier League after they defeated Coventry City on penalties in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

He departed Luton in 2025 and looked set to rebuild his reputation once again after an impressive start to the 2025-26 campaign at Middlesbrough, only to fairly surprisingly jump ship in the autumn to take over at former club Wolves – only to be sacked this summer after their inevitable relegation back down to the Championship.

Edwards is a good coach and his teams can be very well organised, with the Wrexham squad that is assembled, perhaps a ‘deluxe’ version of the one that he had at Luton as they gained promotion.

John Mousinho

With the wealth that Wrexham have, another option to try and poach a manager from another club – and one man who should stand out in that regard is Portsmouth boss John Mousinho.

In the last year or so, there are perhaps some Pompey supporters that have grown frustrated with Mousinho amid fear that the club may stagnate and therefore fall backwards again.

However, after a more ambitious summer of spending than previously, Portsmouth have begun to click again with a goalless draw at Turf Moor against Burnley leaving them tucked inside the top half of the Championship table.

Mousinho led Pompey to the 2023-24 League One title before continuing to build them into a stalwart back in the second-tier and the young coach remains highly regarded and tipped to kick on in his managerial career.

Scott Parker

Three-time promotion winner Scott Parker will have to be high on the shortlist for Wrexham if they do decide to part company with Phil Parkinson.

There are reservations as to whether Parker will ever be able to become a Premier League coach with his style of football often so conservative it leaves his teams, who naturally have weaker squads relative to the level of the top-flight, bereft of opportunities going forward and seemingly waiting to eventually be beaten by a moment of quality.

In the Championship, though, when benefitting from riches that others don’t, Parker is capable of making his teams extremely difficult to beat, with that foundation allowing usually better players than others possess to get his sides over the line.

Fulham via the play-offs as well as automatic promotion with AFC Bournemouth and Burnley. Parker could now be deemed a serial winner for the level – and someone like that is perhaps what Wrexham need, getting an expensively assembled squad to perform to their base level, which should be very high.

Adrian Siemieniec

Again, a more rogue shout than some of the domestic options, but one that would be a progressive appointment as well as fairly bold and ambitious would be that of Jagiellonia Bialystok boss Adrian Siemieniec.

During the era of Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ ownership, delegation to others of footballing matters has been key and the little interference in that aspect has allowed them to rise to where they are now.

It wouldn’t be a major shock, though, if, wherever the influence may come from, Wrexham opt to head in a totally different direction to current boss Parkinson and try and identify one of the more highly-rated young coaches from abroad – be it for football or commercial reasons.

Commercially, Siemieniec isn’t a big name and, so, that may be a moot point, but Wrexham potentially pursuing him could be a symbol of them beginning to get ahead of the grain and using their resources to try and out-smart the rest, too, as well as out-spend.

At the age of 31, Siemieniec became the youngest coach in the history of the Polish top-flight when he replaced Maciej Stolarczyk as manager of Jagiellonia in April 2023, 15 months after he had taken charge of their reserve team.

In his first ever full season as a manager and with that tag, Siemieniec led Jagiellonia to their first ever Polish Ekstraklasa title.

In the following campaign, Jagiellonia remained strong domestically as they finished third, focusing on European commitments – making the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa Conference League, beaten by eventual runners-up Real Betis.

Last season, Siemieniec maintained Jagiellonia’s strong performances as they again finished third and again reached the knockout stages of European competition, beaten by Fiorentina in the knockout play-off round of the UEFA Europa Conference League after extra-time, having beaten I Viola by four goals to two in the second-leg in Tuscany.

So far this season, Jagiellonia have been inconsistent, with six victories and six defeats in the league as well as defeats to Olympiacos and Anderlecht either side of beating Ararat-Armenia in the league phase of the UEFA Europa League.

It could well be that Siemieniec’s time at Jagiellonia is coming to its natural end after such impressive success, but to have got them to where they are now is something that will mean he remains a club legend forever – but still at the age of 34, he is surely now destined for a new opportunity to again prove his coaching credentials as to which we do not yet know if there is a ceiling – and that should be something that excites the project runners of Wrexham.