Coady Backs Wrexham To 'Upset And Disrupt' The Championship

Conor Coady has backed Wrexham to "upset and disrupt" the Championship this season despite their opening-day defeat to Southampton. 

Wrexham lost 2-1 at St. Mary's to the recently relegated Saints, with two late goals from Ryan Manning and Jack Stephens completing the turnaround. 

They return to the SToK Cae Ras for their EFL Cup first-round tie against Hull City on Tuesday before taking on West Brom in their first home league game of 2025-26. 

Coady was one of many new arrivals at the club this summer, joining the likes of Lewis O'Brien, Liberato Cacace and Kieffer Moore in joining the Hollywood-backed outfit. 

Celebrity owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have helped oversee three successive promotions from the National League to the Championship. 

Despite their squad overhaul, Wrexham's chances of automatic promotion were handed just a 2.8% probability by the Opta supercomputer ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. 

Coady, however, is confident his new team can impose themselves in the division and challenge at the summit of the standings. 

"We're going to cope with it," said Coady. "We know what we are. We know how we're going to play, and we're here to upset and disrupt a few teams in this division.

"We'll keep on trying to do that. We've shown we can play. We'll keep building, we'll keep improving.

"We have to improve, we have to get better. That's the biggest thing."

In the Opta supercomputer's 10,000 pre-season simulations, Wrexham finished in the top six in just 9.6% of scenarios, being relegated back to League One in 20.2%.

According to Opta's Power Rankings model, Wrexham have the ninth-toughest start to the season among the 24 Championship clubs. 

Ahead of facing Southampton, Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson revealed he had not been set any targets by owners Reynolds and McElhenney for the season. 

Instead, regular improvement will constitute success for Wrexham this term, though Coady suggested his team are thinking bigger. 

"It's amazing to see where this club has gone. I have so much respect for what this club has done since the National League to get to this point," Coady added. 

"But we're at a point now where we don't just enjoy being here. We want to improve and mix ourselves with teams like this [Southampton].

"Maybe go higher, but to do that we have to make sure we're dominant at this level and get to that level as quick as we can.

"What we've got to do is take it one game at a time, but let's enjoy the ride.

"Let's not take anything away from it. Southampton were in the Premier League last season, Wrexham were in League One.

"So we're in a position now where we're fighting with these teams, showing we can play, and showing we've got an idea."