Wrexham AFC shock revealed at managerial decision that led to "disaster" appointment | OneFootball

FLW's Red Dragons fan pundit has outlined his shock at the club's period of three managers in nine months in 2018/19

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Wrexham's 2018/19 National League season was a turbulent one, and FLW's Wrexham fan pundit has outlined their spell of three managers in nine months in that campaign as a time that still shocks him and other fans to this day.

The Red Dragons had been lingering in non-league for over ten years in the summer of 2018, after coming close to promotion numerous times but falling at the final hurdle, but finally had a glimmer of hope that they would make that jump under new boss Sam Ricketts after starting the 2018/19 campaign in great form.

Ricketts' strong start meant he was poached by rivals and then-League One side Shrewsbury Town in December, after he had been banned from attending Wrexham's FA Cup game due to speaking to the Shrews, with his assistant Graham Barrow appointed as manager in his place on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

Barrow then resigned from his role just two months later though, to become Ricketts' assistant again in Shropshire, and in came former player Bryan Hughes, in a shock appointment considering his inexperience as a manager.

Fan pundit outlines shock at three Wrexham managers in nine months

Hughes ended up guiding Wrexham to a fourth-placed finish in the fifth tier of English football, but they lost out to Eastleigh in the play-off quarter-finals, and he was eventually sacked in September 2019 with the Welsh club in the National League relegation places.

It was certainly a tumultuous time to be a supporter at the Racecourse Ground, and FLW's Red Dragons' fan pundit, Liam Grice, identified the 2018/19 season as one that came as a shock to fans considering the respective decisions made by Ricketts, Barrow, and then the club's chiefs to hire Hughes.

“The one thing that has stuck in my mind as quite surprising is the period of time where we went through three managers in the space of nine months," Liam told Football League World.

“We had Sam Ricketts, who had come in at the start of the 2018/19 season and got us pushing for play-offs, but then he left us to go to our rivals Shrewsbury.

“That led to Graham Barrow, his long-time assistant, becoming the manager, but he then decided he didn’t want the job and left to join Ricketts as his assistant at Shrewsbury.

“Then we had the option to pick an experienced manager to come and steady the ship, and we went with former player Bryan Hughes, which was a disaster appointment from minute one.”

Managerial merry-go-round nearly cost Wrexham their recent successes

Nowadays, the Red Dragons are known as a club on the up in the third-tier under the guidance of celebrity owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, but their success in recent years may not have ever happened had they been relegated from the National League in the season after their three-manager spell.

Hughes managed to keep his job after failure in the play-offs at the end of 2018/19, but was relieved of his duties not long into the 2019/20 campaign, after his side had gone eight games without a win and dropped into the relegation places.

Wrexham had been handily-placed when Ricketts left in December, and even when Hughes had taken over just two months later, but their gamble had not paid off with the former Birmingham midfielder, as club legend Dean Keates took over in October 2019.

Keates led Wrexham to the lowest league position in their 155-year history, as they finished 19th in the National League with the season ending prematurely due to the COVID pandemic, just 0.08 PPG above Ebbsfleet United in 22nd.

It is fair to say that, had Ricketts, or even Barrow, not left the club so soon, then they may well have kicked on and been in League Two a lot earlier than their eventual promotion last year.

On the flip side to that, their departures, and the shock decision to appoint an inexperienced boss like Hughes, nearly cost the Red Dragons their place in the National League, which then very feasibly may have meant that McElhenney and Reynolds never took over in November 2020, and their subsequent successes may not have happened.