Latest news with #NathanBroadhead
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Wrexham smashes club transfer fee to land Nathan Broadhead
August 15 - Wrexham smashed its club record for a transfer fee in announcing the signing of Nathan Broadhead from Ipswich Town on Thursday. Broadhead, 27, signed a four-year deal with Wrexham that is worth around $10 million, according to multiple reports. The Wales international and former Wrexham Academy player can earn an additional $3.4 million in performance-related add-ons. Broadhead scored 13 goals in 2024 while Ipswich Town earned promotion to the Premier League. He began his youth career at Bangor City before joining the Wrexham Academy and then moving on to Everton when he was just 10 years old. "It's been a long time coming and I'm delighted to join the Club," he said. "Belief is going to be the biggest thing for us this season. We want to get everyone from North Wales down to the SToK Cae Ras and to show that belief in us." Wrexham's previous record transfer fee was the reported $4 million paid earlier this summer for Lewis O'Brien. Broadhead marks the ninth player the club has signed this summer on contracts totaling more than $27 million. Other notable additions include former England defender Conor Coady and New Zealand international Liberato Cacace. The spending spree is part of Wrexham's efforts to continue its meteoric rise through EFL divisions. The summer transfer window closes Sept. 1 Broadhead made his Premier League debut with Everton during the 2020-21 season, and scored 10 goals in 20 appearances while on loan with Sunderland in League One the following season. He began the 2022-23 season on loan at Wigan Athletic before a permanent move to Ipswich Town that January. "I'm delighted to welcome Nathan to the club, he's a local boy who had a real desire to come and play for his hometown club," Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said. "We're all looking forward to working with him in the coming seasons." After three consecutive promotions, Wrexham lost its first match in the Championship League 2-1 to Southampton after conceding two late goals last weekend. The club's next match is Aug. 23 against Sheffield Wednesday. --Field Level Media
BBC News
10 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Broadhead fee reflects 'real Championship quality'
Manager Phil Parkinson says Wrexham had to break their own transfer record to get "real Championship quality" in signing Nathan forward Broadhead, 27, has joined from Ipswich Town on a four-year deal which could eventually be worth £ previous record transfer fee was believed to be in excess of £3m when they signed midfielder Lewis O'Brien from Nottingham Forest in July."The fee has been out there at £10m but I think we have to get to the Premier League and win the Champions League to get to that," Parkinson told BBC Sport Wales."But it's a price for a player of real Championship quality."The fee with Ipswich had been agreed a for a long time, obviously they wanted to sign a player so we had to be patient."But they've been fair and both parties are happy with the deal." Bangor-born Broadhead was in the final year of his contract with Ipswich, where he scored 23 goals in 83 season Broadhead, who started his professional career at Everton, scored two goals in 18 Premier League games for Kieran McKenna's side."He's just got that Championship pedigree, the ability to create something in tight situations, you need players to unlock the door and create key moments in games and Nathan's got that," Parkinson added."He's shown it at Ipswich at levels over the past few seasons and obviously the story of him coming home is a great one as well."He was really keen to come here and I'm really looking forward to working with him." Broadhead is Wrexham's ninth signing since they were promoted from League One last season – their third successive automatic Dragons have broken their transfer record on numerous occasions since Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took control of the club in acknowledged the backing of the club's owners in preparing a squad to compete in the Championship this season."I think it's key - there's a lot of spending power in the division," Parkinson said."I think from day one we've moved so quickly and we've always had to work hard as a club to fast track the quality level for the first team as we've always played catch-up."But we've come to this division very quickly and it's important that we bought in Championship standard players to help us on this journey and also assist the existing players who've done so well over the last few years."
Leader Live
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Leader Live
Josh Windass "looking forward" to West Brom atmopshere
After joining from Sheffield Wednesday in the summer, the midfielder, who can also play as a striker, scored on his debut at Southampton last Saturday. He also made an appearance off the bench against Hull City on Tuesday night in the Carabao Cup, where he scored in the shootout. When asked about how he's settling into life in North Wales, he said: "Enjoying it, still living in a hotel at the minute, that part needs sorting out but apart from that I've fully enjoyed it. "The lads have took me in amazingly, the management staff have welcomed me with open arms, so couldn't have asked for a better transition. "It's a big changing room now, but the transition I've made coming from one club to another has been seamless and I can't thank the lads enough for accepting me into the group." Ahead of the visit of West Brom tomorrow, Windass said he is looking forward to getting out in front of the crowd at the SToK Cae Ras. He added: "I keep getting told how good the atmosphere is so I'm looking forward to sampling it for a proper league game, I'm going to go out and give the best performance I can give like I always do and hopefully we can come away with a good result." Following the announcement of Nathan Broadhead, Windass said new additions can only strengthen the group ahead of a tough Championship season. Windass said: "The more quality, the more people coming into the group is the better for the team. We want to be fighting as high up as we can. "The season's long in the championship, the games come thick and fast, so you need everybody to be 100% all year round."
Wales Online
14 hours ago
- Sport
- Wales Online
Ryan Reynolds in £25million gamble as Wrexham make biggest announcement yet
Ryan Reynolds in £25million gamble as Wrexham make biggest announcement yet Wrexham have shown serious intent by spending a potential total of £25m this summer, with the arrival of Nathan Broadhead from Ipswich highlighting their bold ambitions Ryan Reynolds' Wrexham have spent big on transfers this summer (Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside via Getty) Wrexham have signalled their intent to compete in the Championship after landing the signature of Nathan Broadhead. The Wales international's arrival from Ipswich on a four-year contract was confirmed on Thursday. The deal is worth an initial £7.5million but potentially rising to as much as £10m with add-ons, according to reports. The 27-year-old forward is the ninth new recruit brought in by manager Phil Parkinson during the summer transfer window. Big spending has been sanctioned by Wrexham's Hollywood owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, following the club's promotion from League One in April. It started with the relatively modest purchase of striker Ryan Hardie from Plymouth for £700,000 in mid-June. Goalkeeper Danny Ward then joined on a free transfer from Leicester, followed by Empoli left-back Liberato Cacace for around £2.2m, but possibly going up to £4m in future. Midfielder George Thomason from Bolton was the next player through the door for £1.2m, with forward Josh Windass signing on a free after quitting Sheffield Wednesday. Nottingham Forest midfielder Lewis O'Brien was added to Wrexham's ranks for a reported sum of £3m that could eventually go up to £5m. Defender Conor Coady from Leicester and striker Kieffer Moore from Sheffield United were bought for £2m each just in time for the season opener at Southampton. The capture of Broadhead represents the third time the Red Dragons have broken their transfer record this summer. Article continues below Wrexham have smashed their transfer record after buying Ipswich forward Nathan Broadhead (Image: Wrexham AFC) It means their potential outlay so far adds up to £25m, with initial fees totalling some £18.5m. The whopping figure places Wrexham among the second tier's top spenders during the current window as Parkinson looks to create a squad which can challenge near the top end of the table. Reynolds and Mac have made it clear their ultimate goal is to reach the Premier League and eventually win the title. Mac, who recently filed to change his surname from McElhenney, has also said he will not settle for consolidation. However, Wrexham's ambitious spending still represents a risk in a division with Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR) in place. The North Wales side's CEO, Michael Williamson, recently provided an insight into the club's transfer strategy. Wrexham chief executive Michael Williamson (left) has given an insight into the club's transfer strategy (Image: Nick Potts/PA Wire.) The former Inter Milan figurehead revealed that Reynolds and Mac have a hands-off approach when it comes to the finer details. Speaking to the Telegraph, Williamson said: "They know what they know and know what they don't know and are not afraid to admit it. They're very refreshing, because they are supportive, they're engaged, but they do not try to micromanage or get too involved." The chief executive presented the pair with different scenarios when preparing their latest transfer war chest. He included budgets for survival, a mid-table finish and to be competitive. Wrexham co-owners Mac and Reynolds were given several different options before agreeing a transfer budget (Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images) Reflecting their bullish nature, Reynolds and Mac are said to have asked him what would be required to achieve a top-two finish, ensuring automatic promotion to the Premier League. Williamson said their conclusion was: "Let's be competitive and see where we end up." He said: "If we can find ourselves in that position towards the back end of the season, I give us a very good shot of being in the play-offs. And then, ultimately, if we're in the play-offs, I give us a very good shot of getting promoted." So, how much of a risk does Wrexham's significant expenditure represent? Working in their favour is the club's strong revenue position after achieving an astonishing annual turnover of £26.7m for the financial year ending June 2024. That was a period when they were competing in League Two and largely thanks to the global attention attracted by the celebrity owners. The success of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary and lucrative sponsorship deals also contributed. Watch Welcome to Wrexham season 4 on Disney+ This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more from £4.99 Disney+ Get Disney+ here Product Description Welcome to Wrexham is back on Disney+ for a fourth season. Fans can watch the series with a £4.99 monthly plan, or get 12 months for the price of 10 by paying for a year upfront. While Wrexham still posted a loss of £2.7m during that time, PSR rules allow Championship clubs to lose £39m over a three-year cycle, equating to £13m a year. They aren't solely reliant on the financial muscle of Reynolds and Mac either, with the Allyn family from New York also providing substantial backing. But questions have been raised in some quarters over whether they are realising value for money. In Broadhead's case, they forked out a major amount for a player who was in the final year of his contract at Ipswich. Doubts have also been cast over the quality of some of their signings. For example, former Wales striker Iwan Roberts thinks they paid over the odds for Conor Coady, whose best years he claimed are behind him. Sign up to our newsletter! Wrexham is the Game is great new way to get top-class coverage Wrexham AFC is the arguably the fastest-growing club in the world at the moment thanks to a certain Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The Dragons have achieved two consecutive promotions and are cheered on by crowds from not only North Wales but also from all over the globe, thanks to the success of the Disney+ documentary 'Welcome to Wrexham'. But does it have a dedicated, quality source of information piped through to your inbox each week, free of ads but packed with informed opinion, analysis and even a little bit of fun each week? That's where Wrexham is the Game steps in... Available every Wednesday, it provides all the insights you need to be a top red. And for a limited time, a subscription to 'Wrexham is the Game' will cost fans just £15 for the first year. Sign up for Wrexham is the Game here Article continues below Speaking on the BBC's Feast of Football podcast, Roberts said: "He (Coady) hasn't done a thing at Leicester for two years. If you ask any Leicester fan if they will lose sleep over losing Conor Coady, and they've got £2million for him, they will say that no, they won't. "He hardly kicked the ball in the season when they won the Championship. Last season, he was involved in 22 Premier League games in the second-worst defence in the league. I think he's past his prime." However, Wrexham can point to their three consecutive promotions from the National League to the Championship as evidence that their transfer strategy has clearly worked so far. Whether or not it delivers results in the second tier, only time will tell.
New York Times
20 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Wrexham's revamped home: A (longer) £1.7m pitch, heated dugout seats and goal-line technology
With Nathan Broadhead's club record £7.5million transfer taking Wrexham's tally of signings to nine, and more additions expected, Phil Parkinson has had a busy summer. But he's far from alone at Wrexham in experiencing a hectic close season. Aidan Miller, the club's strategy and projects director, has overseen a revamp of the SToK Cae Ras designed to nudge the world's oldest international football ground into the modern era. Advertisement A new £1.7million ($2.3m) pitch, complete with undersoil heating and new drainage, has been the marquee addition. No one at Wrexham's Carabao Cup first-round victory over Hull City could have failed to notice just how lush the new surface looked in the August sunshine. Nor how well it played. The seeding and stitching operation to make Wrexham's surface compliant with European football's regulations was only part of an overhaul that included moving both dugouts to the opposite side of the pitch, building a new TV gantry, reconfiguring stands to squeeze in extra seats, erecting two new giant TV screens at one end and taking down the old scoreboard at the other. There was also the dismantling of a temporary stand, plus the all-important deactivation of a live electric cable underneath the old Kop, as preparatory work continues ahead of the new 7,500-capacity stand starting to go up, on schedule, in the autumn. To squeeze all this into exactly 100 days between Wrexham staging a promotion party after last season had ended and Tuesday's cup tie against Hull is impressive. Even more so when you consider the club did not know until beating Charlton Athletic on April 26 when the 20224-25 season would finish — or when their 2025-26 league campaign would start. 'We had to do a lot of planning,' explains Miller, who joined Wrexham early in 2025 after almost seven years at Everton, primarily working on the club's new Hill Dickinson Stadium. 'The key thing with the pitch is it would take six weeks to reconstruct it. But two months to grow it. 'If we'd finished third and then not gone up, the window would have been tight. In the end, the opposite happened, where we had an extra three weeks (due to Wrexham clinching automatic promotion). But we'd had to plan for the worst and hope we got the best.' Advertisement In recent years, Wrexham's historic home has struggled to keep pace with Parkinson's upwardly mobile team. Facilities have been improved, such as the installation of new floodlights prior to returning to the EFL in 2023. But, really, it won't be until the new Kop stand is finished that The Racecourse Ground will truly shine. The changes — which include the installation of goal-line technology — have brought a new sheen to a venue that first hosted a Wales international in 1877. 'We've always said with the sporting side being so successful, then the standards get raised in terms of what is expected,' says Rob Faulkner, Wrexham's chief business and communications officer, when giving The Athletic a tour of all the changes, including upgraded concourses and hospitality areas. 'A lot of things will go into the new Kop, particularly for the fans and players with top-class facilities, new dressing rooms and so on. But until then, we are trying to catch up as much as we can.' At one stage this summer, six different projects were being worked on inside The Racecourse at the same time by a small army of workers. Contractors Cleveland Land Services (CLS) worked around the clock to get the pitch ready, with seeding taking place on June 1 and the stitching in July. The dugouts were moved across the pitch to the Mold Road Stand, where coaching staff and substitutes will benefit from heated seats in what can be a cold part of the stadium. This has allowed the old dugouts to be converted into fan seating. Two hundred and 24 seats have been added to the Tech End behind the goal, giving a full extra row at the front of the upper section. The old electronic scoreboard at that end has also gone, so the view of those who stand on the back row will no longer be impeded. The pitch has been extended in length to allow for rugby matches to be played in the future and also shifted a couple of metres towards the Kop. This meant the new two-level TV gantry had to be situated slightly to the side of its predecessor, to ensure the main camera position remains on halfway. A second gantry has also been built on the opposite side of the ground on halfway, meaning Wrexham now comply with UEFA and Championship (and Premier League) standards regarding a reverse angle camera position. 'It's a bit like building a house, in that the plumber has to come in before the joiner,' says Miller. 'As part of the work, we've had all the steelwork in the Wrexham Lager Stand painted. This involved someone abseiling, which meant two blocks of seats had to be taken out each time. Advertisement 'It was the same with taking down the temporary stand. We removed one section (containing 558 seats) after the Stockport game last season (on March 22) to help with the pitch project. 'The fan zone also went at the same time, allowing us to create a pathway for the contractors to bring in mountains of gravel, soil and so on. We wanted these onsite, meaning we could start straight away the moment we got the green light.' This also explains why the remaining blocks of the temporary stand were not taken down until late June, several weeks after the season had ended. Miller adds: 'We had work to do around the outside of the site, tidying up the drainage, laying tarmac and a few other things. Only then did we have the space to take down the temporary stand. Coordination was key, in terms of what is the priority — which for us was getting the pitch work going.' The summer revamp is only the start. A new Kop stand will soon start to go up, with the intention to be ready for The Racecourse hosting the UEFA Under-19 Championship in June 2026. It will be the key building block of a stadium masterplan drawn up by Populous, the same firm that designed Arsenal and Tottenham's new homes, as well as Dublin's Aviva Stadium, Wembley and The Sphere in Las Vegas. The initial plan was to house 5,500 fans with the design, then allow another 2,000 to be added. However, a new planning application went in last month for a 7,500 capacity structure and a decision will be made soon by Wrexham Borough Council. A new electricity substation on University land adjacent to The Racecourse's main entrance on Crispin Lane has also been constructed. This will provide power to the three blocks of student flats that sit behind the main stand, replacing the previous substation located towards the back of The Turf pub on the footprint of where the new Kop will stand. As part of this switch, a live power cable running underneath the area was deactivated. 'Until that was done, you couldn't even start digging,' says Miller. 'So, from a big ticket perspective, that's probably the biggest thing we did this summer.' As Miller says proudly, this now feels like 'a Championship ground'. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
