Palmer among likely exits before transfer deadline

Phil Parkinson has held talks with Ollie Palmer this week as the striker appears destined to leave Wrexham before the summer transfer window deadline.

The 33-year-old is in the final year of his contract at the Stok Cae Ras and has not played for the club in a competitive fixture since featuring in a 4-1 EFL Trophy win at Port Vale in early February.

And having recruited forwards Kieffer Moore, Josh Windass and Ryan Hardie during the off-season, Parkinson says Palmer - scorer of 44 goals in 149 appearances since joining from Wimbledon in January 2022 - is among a number of players who could depart the club over the coming weeks.

"Kieffer Moore comes in, I've had a good chat with Ollie Palmer this week. He needs to go and play this season, he knows that," said Parkinson.

"He's been a great servant to the club, a real key player in the climb up the divisions but he's ready to go and play, so there's an example.

"We spoke about Jacob Mendy a couple of weeks ago and there's other players in that category.

"But equally there's also a group who want to prove themselves and they're going to get the opportunity to do that.

"There's a lot of players who have enjoyed being a part of this club and rightly so.

"But they know for their own careers they need to play. If we feel that the time is right for that to happen, then we'll help it happen and get them a club where we feel it's going to be beneficial for them."

Prior to their 2025-26 Championship opener against Southampton at St Mary's Stadium on Saturday (12:30 BST), Wrexham have confirmed frontman Mo Faal has joined Port Vale on a season-long loan deal.

Club icon Paul Mullin left to join Wigan Athletic on loan earlier on in the window while left-back Mendy is also expected to depart on a temporary basis.

"I think inevitably players are going to go," explained Parkinson.

"That's sometimes for the benefit of the player as well. There's players who didn't get a lot of game time last year who need for themselves to go and play.

"What I feel we've done well, we've been very fair to everybody over the last four years since Rob [McElhenney] and Ryan [Reynolds] came in. Everybody's been treated respectfully.

"Decisions have got to be made because, we've got to be realistic, we're going into a very competitive division with a lot of spending power across the board.

"So players will go and it'll genuinely be the ones who we feel need to get some game time and that may be loan or permanent deals."