Wrexham coach Phil Parkinson has told ESPN that Paul Mullin’s loan move to Wigan was the player’s decision as he wanted guarantee himself regular football as the Welsh side prepare for the arduous demands of the English Championship.
Mullin, 30, became one of the faces of Wrexham during their rapid ascent through the leagues following their takeover by Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, helping them become the first team in the history of English football’s top five divisions to secure three-straight promotions.
But offseason back surgery left him struggling for form and fitness last term, restricting him to a peripheral role. This led to one of the main stars of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary series making a loan move to the Latics last week.
“I sat down with Paul in the summer,” Parkinson told ESPN. “Obviously, he’d had a bit of a disjointed year because of his back operation. And I said, ‘Look, it’s up to you, you can come back. You need a good pre-season, compete for a place, or if you want to go somewhere where you know you’re going to play every week to get yourself going, then that’s down to you.’
“Out of respect to him, I said, ‘You can make your own decision. I’m happy for you to speak to managers, go and have meetings, and see where managers fit you into their team.’ I knew Wigan were interested, and I spoke to Paul and he said he felt he needed to go somewhere he knew he was going to play. Totally respect that.
“It’s only a loan deal, but after not having a lot of football for many different reasons last year, it’s a good opportunity for him to go and play and get himself going.”
Returning to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1982, Wrexham will travel to face relegated Premier League side Southampton on the first day of the season, a fixture that Parkinson described as “a tremendous introduction to Championship life.”
“We’re going into one of the most competitive leagues in world football,” Parkinson said. “Not just European football, in world football. It’s a relentless league. We’re the only team in the league that’s never played in the top flight in its history, so we’re against some great clubs. As you go up the divisions in England, the technical ability improves, but the athleticism and the power are things where you can significantly see the difference”
After signing striker Ryan Hardie earlier this month, Parkinson said that building a squad that possessed the ability and depth to meet this rise in physical standards was a major priority.
“Having the running power in the team, especially in the midfield,” Parkinson said ahead of his side’s trip to Australia and New Zealand for preseason games with Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC, and Wellington Phoenix.
“Having the ability to freshen the team up as well. Because with the International breaks in the Championship, you’ve got a lot of midweek games.
“You’re going into a tough game on Saturday, then you go on to Tuesday, with very little difference between the teams in the division. You’re not playing an Ipswich and then the next week a lesser team, where there’s going to be a great deal of difference in the standard of the game.
“Making sure the energy levels are there in the team, but having the ability within the squad to make four or five changes to keep the freshness in the team.
“If you look at the story of the team, the people who watch the games, we have evolved as a team.
“As you go up the divisions, the playing field gets levelled and you come up against squads that at times, even last year [in League One], had more talent than us. So we have to find a way how we’re going to adapt. And that’s going to be more prevalent in the Championship.”
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