RYAN, ROB AND PARKY
Reynolds and Mcelhenney get all the headlines but Parkinson is the third part of Wrexham’s holy trinity
WHEN Phil Parkinson was embarking on a managerial career that promised to take him to the top of the game, he could not have imagined having a conversation with an A-list Hollywood actor about signing a defender from Charlton Athletic.
Even with his new, voracious appetite for football, Ryan Reynolds cannot have been overly familiar with the qualities of ex-celtic, Bury and Rochdale defender Eoghan O’connell.
But after Parkinson and board advisor Shaun Harvey gave them the lowdown on the 27-year-old centrehalf’s capabilities, Reynolds and co-owner Rob Mcelhenney gave the signing the go-ahead.
And on Saturday night, after the new recruit had scored a late winner against Altrincham, Reynolds tweeted: “eoooooghan.”
That snippet is a snapshot of how surreal things can occasionally become at a non-league club owned by Hollywood headliners.
When Wrexham played out that thrilling 3-3 FA Cup fourth round draw against Sheffield United, all eyes and ears were on Reynolds after he jetted in from the States.
Parkinson, 55, won promotion from League One with Colchester and Bolton and, famously, took Bradford City, a League Two side, to the final of the 2012/13 League Cup.
He managed Sunderland after Bolton and was linked with other high-profile jobs earlier in his career.
And Parkinson insists this FA Cup run and the long-term challenge of fulfilling Reynolds’ vision and taking Wrexham up the pyramid shows he still has the fire to go higher.
He said: “I have been a manager for a long time but the minute you lose that ambition, that determination and that drive to succeed is the time to stop.
“But I am probably enjoying the job now more than I have for a long time and I came here because it is a club I can progress with.
“We are ambitious, we want to go up the leagues and this is a group with huge potential. Every manager wants to manage at the highest level.”
And tonight’s replay at Bramall Lane against a Blades side that sit second in the Championship gives Parkinson another chance to showcase his talent on a big stage.
“Logic tells you our great opportunity was to win the game at home but we went to Coventry (where they won in the third round) and played really well,” Parkinson said.
“We are not going there to soak up pressure – we are going there to have a real go at Sheffield United.”
Whether or not Reynolds will be amongst those 4700 is still unclear.
But alas, even if Ryan is there, he won’t see his latest signing – Saturday’s hero, O’connell, is ineligible.