Phil Parkinson is renowned for his foul-mouthed rants and fiery team talks, but that side of his persona appears to be lacking of late.
During their rise through the Football League, Wrexham and Phil Parkinson became synonymous with passion and determination, and were well known to have a penchant for winding up their opponents.
Since they’ve made it to the Championship, though, Wrexham appear to be far tamer and lacking in the fighting spirit and resilience that carried them so far.
The defeat to Stoke City this weekend saw a particularly limp and toothless performance as Wrexham’s unbeaten run came to an end. Perhaps part of the problem is down to the way Parkinson is speaking to his players.
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Phil Parkinson’s passionate team talk vs Sheffield United in 2023
If we go back in time to 2023 and revisit one of Parkinson’s famous team talks from the Welcome to Wrexham docuseries, it’s stunning to see how impassioned his speeches were.
In season 2 episode 7, with coverage of Wrexham’s brilliant FA Cup run, we got behind the scenes footage of the Wrexham manager talking to his players at half-time during the game against Sheffield United.
At the time, Parkinson said: “Listen, you’ve been f—ing brilliant. I mean it, you’ve been f—ing brilliant. Two players off, a goal down, this is a great test for us because this is what today’s all about. And you’re playing some great f—ing football, you’re playing with f—ing composure on the f—ing ball.
“I think we’ve got this team rattled. I do want to say, I think we’ve got them f—ing rattled. F—ing keep going with that f—ing composure. “
Expletive-filled as that team talk may be, you could see at the time how much it got the players geared up for the game. The way that Wrexham battled the Blades, and indeed Coventry City prior to that, was inspiring stuff.
So, why is it that, two-and-a-half years later and with a better squad, Wrexham are struggling to compete with teams in the second tier?
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Has Phil Parkinson lost his fire?
If we take a look at Parkinson’s post-match comments after the defeat to Stoke this weekend, one thing is abundantly clear: there’s not even half the amount of passion that there once was.
He said: “I felt we could have done better, and I just said that to the lads in there [the dressing room], that we said at half-time, come on, we’re right in this game.
“But it’s the process, the way we’re going to keep playing, what we need to do to go and get back in the game. I just felt we went away from that slightly in the second period.”
As Wrexham fans start to turn on Parkinson and his tactics, you would surely hope that he could muster up something more inspiring to say after the game.
We’re sure that, behind closed doors, Parkinson offered up a little more energy to his players. It would be very surprising if Parkinson had actually lost that fire in his belly but there’s no denying that his comments after the Stoke game are a stark contrast to the way he normally talks about football.
