Despite their recent success, Wrexham supporters will always be haunted by the case of how the Danny Ward transfer money was handled.
Goalkeeper Danny Ward, a former student at Wrexham, won a significant windfall over the summer of 2018.
At the time, there was a lot of enthusiasm surrounding Liverpool’s £12.5 million sale of the Wales international, who had grown up through the club’s academy, to Leicester City.
Ward made just one appearance for his hometown club, in a Welsh Cup match against Airbus in December 2011, before leaving Wrexham for Anfield in early 2012. The initial fee for Ward’s move was £100,000 at Anfield.
Because of a 15% sell-on option in the keeper’s contract, reports state that the Red Dragons made up to £2 million from the Liverpool and Leicester trade.
| Wrexham’s last five National League finishes (as per Transfermarkt) | |
|---|---|
| Season | League position |
| 2022/23 | 1st |
| 2021/22 | 2nd |
| 2020/21 | 8th |
| 2019/20 | 19th |
| 2018/19 | 4th |
Bryan Hughes was given a large budget
Sam Ricketts, a former Wolves defender, was the club’s manager at the time of the transfer, but because of the length of time it takes to process transactions of this kind, he did not receive the money.
Instead, it went to former Wrexham midfielder Bryan Hughes, who was named manager in February 2019 after Ricketts left for Shrewsbury and then Graham Barrow.
It’s an interesting coincidence that Hughes, who paid close to £1 million to join Birmingham City in 1997, was previously thought to have brought in the club’s biggest transfer fee.
How appropriate, then, that he should receive a sum of money that would undoubtedly give the North Wales team a significant boost in their efforts to eventually be promoted from the National League.
According to The Leader, Hughes had a playing budget of more than £1.2 million at the beginning of the 2019–20 campaign.
For a club that was then owned by fans, it was a substantial sum of money, even before it had millions to spend in Hollywood.
In fact, through multiple “Build the Budget” fundraising campaigns over the years, supporters went above and beyond to increase the war chest that managers had access to.
Poor hiring practices cause Hughes to fail
Fans were naturally eager to see how the Ward money would be used when it first became available.
After joining Wrexham near the end of the 2018–19 season, Hughes led the team into the play-offs, where they were defeated by Eastleigh in the quarterfinal.
After he received funds during the summer, including from the Ward transfer, there was anticipation of a further push for promotion.
However, the recruitment decisions that followed triggered a chain of events that ultimately led to him leaving his position less than two months into the new season, with Wrexham sitting in the National League relegation zone.
In actuality, the majority of the players Hughes signed were merely not talented enough.
Most of the lower-tier clubs’ signings, including goalkeeper Dawid Szczepaniak, right-back Jazzi Barnum-Bobb, defensive midfielder Adam Barton, and strikers JJ Hooper and Leighton McIntosh, failed to leave their mark.
Not even Devonte Redmond, a former Manchester United starlet, and Mark Harris, a young prospect on loan from Cardiff City, could help Hughes.
Following eight games without a victory in the 2019–20 campaign, Hughes left Wrexham in September following a 3-2 loss at fellow struggling team AFC Fylde that sent them into the relegation zone.
‘Wasted’ money infuriates fans
Later on, Hughes would characterize the club’s decision to terminate his employment as “harsh and a bit premature.”
The Wrexham Supporters Trust (WST), which owned the team at the time, as well as the manager were both targets of the fan base’s ire as a result of Wrexham’s subpar play.
Where had all the Danny Ward money gone was the main question on everyone’s mind.
During a Q&A session with board members in December 2019, a response was obtained.
They stated, “Some of the funds were received in the current financial year,” making explicit reference to how the Ward funds were used.
“This allowed us to invest more in the squad this season from the summer (and) upgrades to parts of the stadium. Additionally, we needed to hold onto money for a corporation tax payment.
Supporters believed that the money had been squandered, in part because of Hughes’s subpar hiring practices.
In his second stint at Wrexham, his successor Dean Keates made an effort to turn things around, but the team ended up with its worst-ever finish in 2019–20.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused the season to end early, and the Red Dragons narrowly avoided relegation by finishing 19th in points per game.
In April 2020, the WST board wrote an open letter outlining the “serious threat” the pandemic posed to the club’s financial stability.
Afterwards, Keates’ first team budget for the 2020–21 campaign was reduced by almost £300,000.
Soon after the season began, the club’s prospects dramatically improved with the announcement of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s proposed takeover. The rest is history, as they say.
But the Danny Ward money case and its subsequent usage will always serve as a reminder to exercise caution when making purchases.
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