Perhaps Wrexham chief executive Michael Williamson summed things up best shortly before ringing the Nasdaq bell in Times Square to launch both the day’s trading on the world’s second biggest stock exchange and the club’s new home shirt.

“This is a ‘Pinch me’ moment,” said the American, no doubt echoing the thoughts of those long-standing Wrexham supporters who followed their team across the Atlantic last month for a three-game tour taking in Tampa, New York and Philadelphia.

It wasn’t just the glamorous kit launch in midtown Manhattan that felt surreal, either. There was also Wrexham taking on Liverpool in iconic Yankee Stadium, unveiling their latest signing at the top of the Empire State Building and beating Premier League opposition in Leeds United on American soil.

All are things that could only have been dreamed of during their 15 years in the non-League wilderness until 2023, when only the devotion of those same fans kept the lights on.

Over 40,000 fans flocked to Yankee Stadium to see Wrexham vs Liverpool (Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)

Danny Ward, their Wales international goalkeeper, appreciates this transformation more than most, having started his career at The Racecourse Ground in the early days of the Supporters Trust’s decade-long stint at the helm and then returning a year ago on a free transfer.

“From where I left the club to now is chalk and cheese,” says the 33-year-old about a tour that culminated in Sunday’s narrow 1-0 defeat against top-flight Sunderland in Philadelphia. “A real journey, but there’s still more we want to do with the club.”

With the squad now back in the UK and the focus switching to Friday’s televised Carabao Cup first round tie away to fellow Championship side Middlesbrough, we look at what can be gleaned from a football perspective as the dust starts to settle on Wrexham’s 2026 East Coast tour.

Timing is key

Even if we take the starting point of their season as the opening Championship fixture away to Cardiff City on Monday, August 17, rather than Friday’s Carabao Cup meeting with Middlesbrough, Wrexham’s 2026 summer tour came much closer to the new campaign than its equivalent a year ago.

The final match of this tour, against Sunderland on Sunday, was just 15 days before the start of their league season (six before Middlesbrough), whereas the 2025 trip to Australia and New Zealand ended 21 days before the campaign’s first official match away to Southampton.

As a result, the squad were much further down the fitness road in the States, helped by playing two friendlies against Wisla Krakow and Manchester United before flying out.

This was apparent in performances, with Wrexham looking much slicker and more cohesive than in pre-season a year ago, particularly in the 3-2 victory over Leeds in Tampa, with the opening goal a thing of beauty — featuring 16 passes as the ball was moved from within yards of the Wrexham goal line all the way into the opposition’s net.

Neither Leeds nor Liverpool were anywhere near full strength, due to being at different stages of their own preparations for a Premier League season that doesn’t get underway until August 21.

Sunderland, in contrast, played more of their big guns on Sunday — and it showed, with Wrexham struggling to make inroads against a team featuring Brian Brobbey, Robin Roefs, Noah Sadiki and Habib Diarra.

Quite the contrast in quality to this time last year, when they took on three sides from the A-League in Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix.

Lewis O’Brien thrives in deeper role

Lewis O’Brien has looked strong when deployed deeper than he tended to play last season. Partnered with the ever-reliable Matty James, he’s thrived in a role that is not too dissimilar to the one in which he first impressed as a youngster at Bradford City and then Huddersfield Town.

James, too, was calmness personified on the ball as the pair dovetailed neatly in the absence of Ben Sheaf as he makes his way back from a knee injury. This will have pleased manager Phil Parkinson, who last season was forced to use Zak Vyner as a makeshift holding midfielder alongside George Dobson as injury and suspension bit in the spring.

He’s determined to avoid a repeat in such a critical position, hence Wrexham’s interest in Preston North End captain Ben Whiteman to supplement his already strong options in Sheaf, James and O’Brien.

O’Brien battles for the ball with Leeds forward Wilfried Gnonto (Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)

Elsewhere, Liberato Cacace has built on an impressive World Cup with New Zealand. He was unfortunate not to score against Sunderland, while the Kiwi’s delivery from out wide caused problems.

On the other flank, new signing Danny Imray could be happy with his debut. Not only did he defend admirably against a Sunderland side who look to move the ball swiftly once across the halfway line, but he also posed a serious threat in attack, whipping in a series of dangerous crosses as well as a clever pull-back for Kieffer Moore that eventually led to Nathan Broadhead, who had looked bright against Leeds, putting the ball into the net from an offside position.

There could be few complaints with the decision, even if record-signing Broadhead did briefly remonstrate with the official after the 37th-minute flag.

Moments of struggle against top opposition

‘Struggle’ might be harsh but there were certainly a few concerns — particularly in attack, where the few chances that were created against Liverpool and Sunderland went to waste.

Moore finished an excellent team goal in the Leeds game but he also wasted good opportunities, starting with his follow-up from a Broadhead free kick that had struck the crossbar. He should also have converted a low cross from Cacace against Liverpool, while Imray’s cutback on Sunday deserved better than the heavy touch that nudged the ball towards an offside Broadhead.

Josh Windass’ return from a calf injury will help matters, as was shown during last season’s run-in when his six goals in the final eight league games almost earned Wrexham a first stab at the Championship play-offs. Nevertheless, they cannot afford to be so profligate in front of goal once the real action starts.

Another slight worry was the drop-off in control enjoyed by Wrexham in the centre of the pitch when either James or O’Brien was absent. Again, a returning player in Sheaf will help, as would concluding a deal for Whiteman.

Likewise, the hunt for another defender to supplement a back line that struggled to contain Brobbey. No shame in that, of course, with the Netherlands international having scored three times in four World Cup appearances this summer.

Dominic Hyam tussles with Sunderland’s Brian Brobbey (Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)

But Sunday did provide a timely reminder as to Wrexham’s potential Achilles heel when up against a powerful striker. As Southampton’s Cyle Larin showed in April’s 5-1 thrashing, the defence is susceptible to being bullied physically at times.

Clarity in the goalkeeping department would also be welcome, too. Arthur Okonkwo started two of the three games but is now into the final year of his contract, with Wrexham casting their eye around the market.

Anthony Patterson, who coincidentally came off the bench for Sunderland on Sunday, is among those on the radar after falling behind Roefs in the Stadium of Light pecking order.

What does all this tell us about the team for Friday?

It’s difficult to say, with Parkinson making clear before the tour that the Middlesbrough game would be approached like a final pre-season outing due to the tight turnaround after Wrexham only landed back in the UK on Monday.

Does that mean we will see minutes given to those who largely missed out on game time in the States? Or does he go strong, but on the proviso there will be the maximum number of changes allowed under competition rules in the second half?

We’ll know the answers to those questions come Friday at the Riverside Stadium, of course, but there seems a fair chance that the XI against Sunderland will be a decent gauge as to who features, with a back three of Vyner, Dominic Hyam and Callum Doyle seeming locked in.

Imray and Cacace seem likely starters in the wing-back roles, with James and O’Brien renewing their partnership in holding midfield. Broadhead seems a shoo-in as one of the No 10s, leaving just the goalkeeper, the other No 10 and the striker to be finalised.

Sam Smith must have a strong case to start up top, while Bailey Cadamarteri could be worth a go just behind, as Ward and Okonkwo fight it out for the gloves after a tour that proved Wrexham’s stock as a football club has never been higher thanks to that glitzy shirt launch.

The task now is to, once again, land the signings capable of taking them to the next level on the field.

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.

SEATTLE — Two days after trading Tarik Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris was asked point-blank: Did the Tigers ever make a compelling offer to keep Skubal in Detroit?

“We explored an extension once,” Harris said. “The response that I got from Tarik’s agent was pretty clear that he was intent on going to free agency and exploring the market, which is totally his right, and nobody should be upset about that. … It was very clear from the exchange what the intentions were. He deserved it. I expect him to be a free agent this winter, and we’ll see what happens from there.”

Monday night, agent Scott Boras told The Athletic the Tigers presented this offer after 2024, Skubal’s first Cy Young season.

“Scott informed me that he had offered a four-year contract to Tarik for $75 million,” Boras said. “I advised him that a great deal for the Tigers would be something with an eight-year length where he had two years to go until arbitration and another six (before) free agency.”

According to Boras, Harris indicated the Tigers were not willing to go that far. Boras said he never mentioned wanting to test free agency. The industry now expects Skubal to be worth upward of $300 million on the open market. For reasons like that, the majority of star Boras clients test free agency rather than negotiate extensions.

Regardless of how it went down, it led to the events of the past few days, a trade deadline that could define Harris’ tenure in Detroit.

Soon after the 6 p.m. ET trade deadline Monday, Harris sat on a video call with so much to explain. He wore a dark pullover but sat in front of a bright backdrop. Like so many baseball executives this time of the year, Harris looked drained.

He kept talking for 38 minutes, unpacking his thoughts and unraveling the threads of his decisions.

Past the halfway point of a disappointing season, Harris said he had been weighing how to approach the deadline for weeks, if not months, ever since the Tigers went 6-22 in May.

At the center of it all was Skubal, a pitcher already with two Cy Young awards to his name.

The reality of Skubal’s leaving after the season, combined with the fact the Tigers remain outside the playoff hunt, left the Tigers with little choice but to trade Skubal for the sizable return he could bring. The decision made sense. This is sometimes how great organizations are built.

Still, Harris hoped to avoid a sell-off as he watched his team fight back from the brink in June and July. He said he did not make a definitive decision until last week, after the Tigers dropped two of three to the Baltimore Orioles at Comerica Park. The series finale was a 10-9 loss in 12 innings. The Tigers blew a 7-0 lead in what turned out to be Skubal’s final start in a Tigers uniform.

“I wanted to give this team every opportunity to make a really compelling case that we shouldn’t do this,” Harris said. “And again, we just didn’t make that case. It’s not on the players; it’s not the coaches. It’s on me.”

Harris soon traded Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers for outfield prospect Zyhir Hope and right-handed pitching prospects River Ryan and Brady Smith. All three are talented. Hope has a power-speed combo with an All-Star ceiling. Ryan, though often injured and already nearing 28 years old, has premium stuff and could pitch for the Tigers before the end of the season. Smith, too, has a starter’s arsenal and averaged 14.4 strikeouts per nine innings in Class A.

The deal was complete late Saturday night. Per MLB.com, it marked the first time since at least 2004 that two top-100 prospects had been traded in exchange for a rental player.

Despite this fact, pundits spent the next two days questioning why Harris did not wait longer to execute what could be the most consequential trade he will ever make.

“There was a bidding war,” Harris said. “There were a lot of organizations involved. There wasn’t any need to stretch it any further. The organizations that were involved were extremely aggressive. They put in what I believed to be their max offers. Then they added to those offers also and got to a point of almost audible pain when they actually produced their best offers. They gave them to us, and we pulled the trigger.

“Respectfully, the notion that we should have waited 24 or 48 hours later and extracted more value, that’s garbage. That’s not how these negotiations work.”

Although rivals have suggested the Tigers focused most of their efforts on the Dodgers’ farm system, Harris presented a more complicated view featuring tempting offers from multiple clubs.

“It was really tough, and it wasn’t unanimous,” Harris said.

Two days later, the deadline dust settled with only one more trade.

The Tigers sent right-hander Casey Mize and infielder Gage Workman to the San Diego Padres at the buzzer in exchange for left-handed pitchers Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf.

Although just outside the top 100 overall, Mayfield was the Padres’ No. 2 prospect, a 6-foot-4 arm with fluid mechanics and a plus changeup. Along with Ryan and Smith, he helps replenish a Tigers system that has started to see its supply of high-end pitching run dry.

That in itself is one of the reasons the Tigers entered the days leading up to the deadline facing a challenging crux. With Skubal and so many other players injured, their May was abysmal, the type of nightmare month that can tank an entire season.

But since June 1, the Tigers have a 32-20 record. Their plus-63 run differential overall is the second best in the American League. The Tigers have still been haunted by bouts of bad luck and maddening failures to close out games. Their bullpen performance in high-leverage situations ranks 29th out of 30 teams.

Still, the Tigers drew back to within striking distance in a weak American League. They swept the Athletics over the weekend, even with Skubal gone after the first game and uncertainty lingering during the next two.

The situation — buy, sell or both — left Harris crunching the numbers and testing his gut.

“I hate selling with every fiber in my body,” Harris said. “I absolutely hate it.”

Throughout July, Harris kept asking himself two questions: Had he done enough to put the Tigers in a position to add to this team?

Had he done enough to justify passing up future returns for the hope of winning in 2026?

“Once I came to peace with the answer to those questions being no, I thought it was in the best interest of this organization to make the trades that we made this week,” Harris said.

Now Skubal and Mize are gone. But other players on expiring contracts, such as Gleyber Torres, Kenley Jansen and an injured Jack Flaherty, remain. Harris indicated the markets for those players were not good enough to warrant removing them from the current team.

Harris also talked of still believing in his roster, one that is suddenly turning over to more players drafted or developed in the past four years under his watch. Rookie Kevin McGonigle is already one of the best players in the AL. Rookie Max Clark, Harris’ first draft pick, was promoted this weekend. Hao-Yu Lee, a Harris trade acquisition for Michael Lorenzen at the 2023 deadline, has helped inject life and vigor into the lineup.

“I’m really proud of these players for digging out of this hole,” Harris said. “I think it speaks to the character of these players and how they just don’t give up.”

Still, trading Skubal and Mize leaves a void in the rotation for the immediate future. More pressing, the Tigers did not add help for their leaky bullpen.

“When looking at the prices and the quality of the relievers that were available to us at the deadline and the overall context of our situation, it just didn’t make sense,” Harris said.

So much has happened since the cold months of the offseason, when Harris was first assembling this roster and seemingly made the choice to push for a ring in Skubal’s final season.

“We had opportunities to trade him this winter, and we chose not to because we tried to win the World Series here,” Harris said.

Now the Skubal saga has reached its end. The aptly named Hope, plus Ryan and Smith, will become among the most important players in the organization.

It’s a deal we will be talking about for years to come.

“I think the ultimate blame on this, it lies with me,” Harris said. “I should have built more depth. I should’ve found ways to keep players healthier. I should have found ways to find more buckets to clear more water in May so that we didn’t have a 6-22 month. … I promise you I have lost a lot of sleep thinking about it and coming up with concrete takeaways that I can use moving forward and make sure that this season doesn’t happen again.”

Omari Hutchinson arrives with a relaxed smile and a friendly handshake. When he talks, he is upbeat.

As he speaks to The Athletic at Nottingham Forest’s team hotel in Portugal during a pre-season training camp, the 22-year-old forward has no time for negativity.

Within a few minutes, Hutchinson has his mobile out, happily flicking through the screensavers. “I have some things on my phone that I use as motivation. I am very ambitious, and I want to achieve a lot of things,” he says.

One of the pictures is of late U.S. basketball star Kobe Bryant, someone Hutchinson has said he idolises for his fierce winning mentality. But they all add perspective.

“I have the Kobe picture, a picture of my family, the Ballon d’Or…  then I have a message that just says, ‘There is someone outworking you’. It’s just a reminder to stay focused,” he adds.

Hutchinson’s outlook may have been his most valuable asset over the past year.

After becoming Forest’s £37.5million record signing when he joined from Ipswich Town in August, he found himself unwittingly embroiled in the fallout between Nuno Espirito Santo and the club hierarchy, as the club’s then head coach left Hutchinson out of his Europa League squad as the club made their first foray onto the continental stage in three decades.

By the time that squad played their first European game in late September, Nuno was gone, after publicly voicing his concerns about the club’s recruitment — and his relationship with Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis.

Hutchinson played just nine minutes of football under Nuno. Nor did he start a Premier League game under his short-lived replacement, Ange Postecoglou. It was Sean Dyche — Forest’s third (of four) manager during a dramatic campaign — who handed him his first top-flight start, in a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, in early December.

Hutchinson struggled for playing time under Nuno Espirito Santo early last season at Forest (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

It was not how the script was meant to play out for Hutchinson, who had established a reputation as being an exciting prospect during two years with Ipswich, as they first won promotion from the Championship in 2024 (with Hutchinson contributing 10 goals) before the Chelsea academy graduate got his first taste of the top flight.

“I am never negative. I am in a positive frame of mind. I always remember that I am doing what I love. I am playing in the Premier League — that is one of the rarest things in the world,” says Hutchinson. “I guess that is one of the things that got me through. There was a lot of stuff going on. But I am the type to just get on with it. I believe that God has your back and that the people around you have your back.”

Hutchinson did not put much stock in the large amount of money Forest paid to sign him.

“You kind of forget about it. I just wanted to play. That was my biggest frustration,” he says. “It was not so much the fee as much as it was waiting for that opportunity.”

While his team-mates were jetting away on Europa League adventures in Spain, Austria, the Netherlands and Portugal, he tried to distract himself.

“I like to play Call of Duty, I like to play FIFA… when I was not in the Europa League squad, I would play padel with friends,” he says. “I like to spend time with my family. My brother comes up from London and we will go to the gym. But it was a challenge. It was very hard. You join the club thinking you are going to make your European debut.

“It is what it is. I was included in the European squad in January (once Forest were into the knockout phase, eventually reaching the semi-finals), so we got there.

“I was speaking to a friend who has been in football for a long time, when I was at Ipswich — he told me that I would have a lot of managers. He said that I had to be prepared for the fact that (Ipswich’s manager at the time) Kieran McKenna would not be the only one…

Hutchinson thrived under Kieran McKenna at Ipswich after initially joining on loan from Chelsea (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

“Then we (Forest) had four managers in one season… and you have to learn and adapt to every one of their playing styles; what they expect of you on and off the pitch — and even how they want you to carry yourself. It was difficult. You had to adapt.”

Hutchinson’s preparations were also hampered last summer by the fact that, while his future was resolved, he trained away from the rest of their squad, not joining Forest until the day before their first league game of the season in mid-August.

“There is more to come from me. There is more for Forest fans to see. I was operating at about 70 per cent last season,” he says. “I have a lot of stuff to work on for myself; lots of areas in which I need to improve. I need to get better with my execution — I know where I need to focus.”

And Hutchinson is already convinced Forest’s latest managerial appointment Oliver Glasner can bring stability.

“I 100 per cent feel that success is on the horizon under him. You can see he loves football. He is very dialled-in to what he wants — he has very high standards,” says Hutchinson of the man who won the FA Cup and UEFA Conference League with Crystal Palace in the past two seasons. “If you are not doing well, he will pick you up on it in meetings. Not in a bad way… it is just that he believes the squad we have did not do well enough.

“He is ambitious and believes he can be successful with us. He brings a lot of energy. He is very tactical. He has given us a clear idea of how he wants us to play. He wants us to play football, but also to get to the goal as quickly as possible.

“He is very demanding. It is hard work. It has been intense. But he is very good. He is the kind of character who you can have a chat with. We do a lot of analysis, we look at things in detail, and he picks our brains a lot. We are just trying to learn his identity; the way he wants to do things.”

Hutchinson is confident Glasner will bring success to Forest, having won domestic and European silverware with previous club Crystal Palace (Harriet Massey/Getty Images)

Hutchinson ultimately started 17 Premier League games, along with 14 substitute appearances, as top-flight safety was secured and was a regular in Europe under Vitor Pereira, Forest’s final coach of the campaign, starting seven of their eight knockout matches including both legs of the semi-final against Aston Villa.

Glasner could bring fresh opportunity for Hutchinson with his favoured 3-4-2-1 formation, which includes two No 10 roles.

“That is the role I played in at Ipswich, as the right-sided 10,” says Hutchinson. “I need to get a feel for it again; I need to find my bearings. But the manager has also told me that, if we do play with a back four, I can play on the right.”

One of those two No 10 roles will surely be taken by Morgan Gibbs-White, who has been Forest’s most influential figure in recent seasons. Hutchinson will have competition for the other one from the likes of James McAtee and Igor Jesus.

“Morgan is so important. He knows how to win. The players around him just need to help him. If we can do that, we can do really well,” says Hutchinson. “Ola (Aina, the 29-year-old right-back and fellow Chelsea old boy) is the closest I have got to a mentor… but there are a few boys who will tell you if you are not doing well. They will put an arm around you.

“It is a very together squad. It is a big family. You can feel that in this camp. The team set the bar when they finished seventh just over a year ago. That is exactly the kind of thing we are trying to achieve again.

“There should be no boundaries… we have to be ambitious. We can get top 10, we can get top four… We just have to believe we can do better. Because we can.”

Hutchinson’s positivity unquestionably helped him to get through a challenging debut year at the City Ground. Perhaps his outlook could now be rewarded with something better in season two.