Wrexham chief reveals truth behind Christian Eriksen transfer saga after phoning his agent

Wrexham made a bold approach to sign former Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen in the summer, and chief executive Michael Williamson has now opened up on how the talks went

Former Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen was the subject of a bold approach from Wrexham during the summer(Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Wrexham chief executive Michael Williamson has revealed just how close the club came to pulling off an audacious bid to sign Christian Eriksen during the summer.

The former Tottenham and Inter Milan midfielder left Manchester United at the end of last term after spending three seasons at Old Trafford. Wrexham, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, had not long been promoted from League One when they decided to attempt a bold transfer move by pursuing the 33-year-old.

Their efforts to sign the Danish international were ultimately unsuccessful as Eriksen decided he wanted to continue playing at the highest level and has since joined Bundesliga side Wolfsburg. However, Williamson has now disclosed that the offer from the Championship new boys was seriously considered after he reached out to the player’s agent.

Speaking on That Wrexham Podcast, hosted by former Red Dragons players Ben Foster and Ben Tozer, he said the approach was made easier as he already knew Eriksen from his time working in senior roles at Inter. It was actually paper talk, though, which triggered the start of the club’s interest in Eriksen after a call between Williamson and Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson.

Williamson said: “It’s a funny story because I started to see all these rumours about Eriksen coming to Wrexham. I was actually on holiday, and I reached out to Phil and said, ‘Anything going on out there?’

“Phil was like, ‘No, nothing that I know of.’ Then I started thinking about it and about 24 hours later, I reached back out to Phil. I’m like, he [Eriksen] is not far from Wrexham with his family.

Wrexham CEO Michael Williamson has lifted the lid on the club’s approach for Christian Eriksen(Image: FC Internazionale via Getty Images)

“If he’s interested in staying around and being close to family, plus I knew him because he was at Inter for a period, I could reach out to him if we think that is a profile that might be of interest. And Phil’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s actually not a bad idea.'”

Williamson said he initially received a cool response from Eriksen’s representatives as they feared the club only wanted to sign him as it would make a good story for the Welcome to Wrexham documentary. However, after a lengthy conversation, they seemed reassured that the club’s intentions of competing at the top of the Championship were genuine.

Williamson said: “We were down in Australia at the time and what was really interesting was that during the first call I had with the agent, their reaction was, ‘We don’t want his story to be in a documentary because we’ve had plenty of opportunities for a documentary and that’s not what we’re interested in. Hes looking to play top tier football.’

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“He thought we were calling not because of his footballing capabilities, but because we wanted a documentary story. I’m like, ‘No, wait a minute.’ I didn’t even think about that. Obviously, I’m aware, but that wasn’t the reason we were calling. We were calling because we think that he could potentially be an interesting footballer.

“That’s the perception to some extent that we have with Wrexham…but the reality is that what we were looking for were players that could play for us in the Championship and that are difference makers who could help us be competitive on the pitch. That was priority number one and the idea of the documentary was so far out of it.”

He added: “With Eriksen, after I explained what our actual objectives were…we had a great conversation. It was kicked around, and Christian considered it. Then they ultimately came back and said he still wants to play at a first-tier club, which I respect.”

Leicester legend Jamie Vardy was another big name strongly linked with a move to Wrexham during the summer transfer window. But Williamson insisted there was no truth to the rumours and no approach was made.

“With Jamie, I think there a lot of people that just connected the dots on that one with where he was in his career and where we were,” he said. “There were no active conversations on that. He’s a great player and he ended up going to Cremonese.”