Phil Parkinson

Philip John Parkinson (born 1 December 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.

He is currently manager of EFL League Two side Wrexham.

Parkinson, a former Southampton trainee, made his Football League debut in 1988 with Bury, and later joined Reading for £50,000 in July 1992.

Parkinson was named player of the season two years in a row (1997–98 and 1998–99) and was also a key member of the 1993–94 Football League Second Division championship-winning team.

He captained the team to promotion from the Second Division in 2001–02 and soon after promotion success, Parkinson celebrated his testimonial year with a memorable night at Madejski Stadium, where 20,000 fans watched former Reading teammates such as Shaka Hislop, Michael Gilkes and Jeff Hopkins take on an England XI including the likes of Paul Gascoigne, John Barnes and Chris Waddle.

Parkinson's final competitive appearance for Reading was a League Cup defeat against Cambridge United on 10 September 2002.

Although Parkinson rarely featured on the field in his final season as Reading returned to the First Division, he remained a well-respected member of the squad until his departure to Layer Road.

Parkinson left Reading early in 2003 after 11 seasons to take his first steps in management with Colchester United.

Despite showing promising signs as he steered the U's to safety upon arrival in February 2003, the 2003–04 season started poorly as Colchester slipped to three straight league defeats, only softened by a victory in the League Cup.

Colchester's form improved and a strong FA Cup run, LDV run and a good finish to the season left optimism for U's supporters.

In a 2005 poll to compile the Royals' best-ever XI, Parkinson was voted the best central midfielder with 60.3% of the vote.

The 2005–06 season saw them finish in second place, thereby gaining an unlikely promotion to the Championship, despite having the lowest average attendance of the division.

During his career, he has achieved promotion four times: with Colchester to the Championship in 2006, with Bradford to League One in 2013, with Bolton Wanderers to the Championship in 2017, and with Wrexham to League Two in 2023.

However, he resigned in June 2006 with a year left to run on his contract.

Parkinson was confirmed as the new manager of Hull City in late June 2006, following the departure of Peter Taylor.

Hull agreed to pay Colchester £400,000 compensation.

When he led Hull against his old club, however, he was embarrassed as his former club romped home 5–1.

After another defeat in the next match at home to Southampton 4–2, he left by "mutual consent" in early December, leaving Hull in the relegation zone.

Parkinson then joined Charlton Athletic in January 2007 as assistant manager to Alan Pardew, having previously worked together at Reading.

He was close to a return to management with Huddersfield Town in April 2007, but made a last-minute decision to remain with Charlton.

Following Pardew's departure in November 2008, he was appointed caretaker manager and given the job permanently on New Year's Eve 2008, despite failing to win any of his eight matches in caretaker charge.

Under his management, Charlton were relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time in nearly 30 years.

In League One, Charlton started off very well, winning their first six league matches, but that run was brought to an end after a 1–1 draw at home to Southampton, Parkinson's ex-manager Alan Pardew's side.

Charlton continued to do well and were in the top two until the new year where Norwich overtook them and they then never returned to the top two, finishing fourth in the league.

In the play-offs, they had to play Swindon Town over the two legs and lost the first one 2–1 at the County Ground.

In the second, however, they turned it around and led 2–0 but Swindon fought back and it finished 3–3 on aggregate.

Swindon then continued and won on penalties 5–4 to condemn Parkinson and his men to another season in League One.

Parkinson later extended his contract with Charlton until 2010.

Having not won a league game since November, Parkinson was sacked on 4 January 2011, the day after his side's 4–2 loss at home to Swindon.

Parkinson was appointed manager of Bradford City on 28 August 2011.

He won the League Two Manager of the Month award for December 2011 after victories over promotion candidates Shrewsbury Town and Crewe Alexandra.

Parkinson also enjoyed a promising run in the Johnstones Paint Trophy with the Bantams taking them to the Northern division semi-finals with victories over Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United as well as an away victory against local rivals Huddersfield Town on penalties, before their run ended with a defeat to Oldham Athletic.

On 11 December 2012, Parkinson's Bradford side progressed to the semi-final of the League Cup following an historic victory over Premier League club Arsenal after a penalty shoot-out.

Parkinson then led Bradford to another historic victory in the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals at Valley Parade, defeating Premier League Aston Villa 3–1 in front of 23,245 fans.

Parkinson is the only manager to take an English fourth-tier league club to the final of a major cup competition at Wembley Stadium, leading Bradford City of League Two to the 2013 League Cup final.

Despite a 2–1 defeat in the second leg at Villa Park, Bradford won the tie 4–3 on aggregate to progress to the 2013 League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium.

In the final, Bradford lost 5–0 to Premier League Swansea City.

After the match, Parkinson criticised referee Kevin Friend for sending Matt Duke off, which resulted in a penalty and described the match as "harsh".

His role in taking Bradford City to the League Cup final resulted in him being rewarded with the Outstanding Managerial Achievement award.

He led Bradford to safety finishing 18th in League Two, then stating that he wanted a promotion push for next season.