Phil Parkinson will return to one of his former clubs this weekend when he takes his Wrexham side to Bolton Wanderers – and he sees some similarities in what the two sets of fans have experienced.
Parkinson got Bolton promoted to the Championship in 2017 and kept the club in the division despite dealing with a transfer embargo.
Towards the end of Parkinson’s reign in 2019, with Bolton just days from liquidation, Wanderers were saved when Sharon Brittan bought the club.
Despite their perilous financial state at the time – a far cry from their Premier League success of the early 2000s – Bolton have now stabilised in League One and have come close to promotion in the past two seasons.
Wrexham have also had to recover from hard times, having spent more than a decade in non-league football under fan ownership before they were bought by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Now, having won back-to-back promotions, Wrexham are back in English football’s third tier and looking forward to facing Bolton on Sunday.
“Bolton could easily have gone out of business but fortunately Sharon Brittan was a resilient pursuer of the ownership of the club, and I think the supporters have a lot to thank her for,” Parkinson told BBC Sport Wales.
“She’s built a real credible football club, done things the right way, and they started from a very tough situation. It took some courage to buy a club in that situation.
“You want good people to do well. The Bolton fans have been through it, the highs and lows, from European football under Sam Allardyce to being close to going out of existence.
“Wrexham fans have had some tough times. This club, like Bolton, is such an important part of the community.
“Now the good times have come and we have fantastic owners who run the club in such a professional way, building foundations. It’s great to see the club and supporters are really flourishing off the back of that.”
Source Agencies
