Wrexham spent over £30million in the summer in a bid to make a real push for promotion to the Premier League.

Their most expensive signing was goalkeeper Anthony Patterson, who arrived from Sunderland for a reported £8million, eclipsing the £7.5million paid for Nathan Broadhead a year earlier.

Eleven games into the Championship season, though, it’s not looking good for Patterson, who many fans are unconvinced about. And now the numbers are supporting the eye test.

Anthony Patterson’s numbers have dropped significantly at Wrexham

During his loan at Millwall last season, Patterson prevented 1.08 more goals than expected, according to SI’s analysis at the time. Arthur Okonkwo, Wrexham’s No 1 for most of the campaign, conceded 2.09 more than expected across 39 games.

This season, it’s the other way round. Data compiled by @louorns shows Patterson on around -3.2 goals prevented, the sixth-worst of the Championship goalkeepers measured, despite facing easier shots than most.

Okonkwo, who joined Charlton on a season-long loan in August, is on around +1.0 while facing shots of a similar quality.

Some of that comes down to one horrific night down in east London. Patterson’s goals prevented figure in the 6-0 defeat at West Ham was -1.70, according to FotMob, more than half of his total. Take that out, though, and he’s still underperforming, with just one clean sheet in 11 league games.

It should be said that goalkeeper data can swing over small samples, and even Patterson’s Millwall numbers came from just 14 games. But Wrexham rank sixth in the Championship for chances conceded and have still let in 16 goals. That gap is hard to ignore.

Patterson signing raises questions over Wrexham’s summer business

Patterson isn’t the only reason to question the summer window. It was a busy one, but most of Wrexham’s business was left late. Jacques Ekomie (£7million) and Callum O’Hare (£6.5million) were the next two most expensive arrivals, joining Danny Imray, Ben Whiteman, Issa Kabore and Joe Worrall through the door.

Not much of their business has been convincing so far. O’Hare is still waiting for his first goal, while Whiteman has been heavily criticised for his displays, although his goal against his old club last weekend could do wonders for his confidence. Worrall hasn’t had the best of starts either, despite opening the scoring against Preston.

Imray and Ekomie have been the picks of the bunch, but even they can’t paper over the lack of depth up front. Three of the seven signings were wing-backs, O’Hare was the only attacking addition, and with Broadhead and Josh Windass both injured, serious questions have been asked about the recruitment.

That could change, however. Steve Nickson started as the club’s first sporting director last month, just after the window closed. He spent 15 years at Newcastle, most recently as head of recruitment, and was involved in bringing the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon to St James’ Park. Part of his remit is building Wrexham’s scouting and recruitment department, and January will be its first real test.

In the meantime, Patterson is expected to keep his place for Saturday’s trip to Blackburn. And with Okonkwo’s contract expiring next summer, Wrexham are set to lose a goalkeeper who is currently outperforming their £8million replacement for nothing.