With just days to go until Wrexham's Championship season opener at Cardiff City, co-owner Ryan Reynolds's summer recruitment analogy is proving prescient: the kitchen is coming together, but the high-end cooker has yet to be delivered.

"This episode is about making the kitchen work better, rather than doing a whole-house renovation," Reynolds said earlier in the summer, comparing the club's transfer business to a home-improvement show.

Three in, more needed

After a remarkable rise from non-league to a seventh-place Championship finish — one win shy of the play-offs — Wrexham have added three players this summer: right wing-back Danny Imray, holding midfielder Ben Whiteman and goalkeeper Anthony Patterson. Crucially, unlike a year ago, when five additions arrived after the campaign had begun (three on deadline day), this group has enjoyed a full pre-season together.

Yet last weekend's Carabao Cup first-round exit to Middlesbrough exposed lingering gaps in the squad. Manager Phil Parkinson still wants a frontline striker in the mould of that night's matchwinner Will Lankshear — signed from Tottenham for an initial £10million that could double through add-ons — plus more options out wide and a central defender. The Athletic revealed earlier this week that bids for Norway international centre-back Henrik Falchener, 23, of Viking Stavanger have been rejected.

The defensive problem that won't go away

Wrexham's Achilles heel in their return to the second tier after 43 years away was clear: they conceded 65 goals across 46 Championship matches, the joint-sixth-highest in the division, and faced 622 shots in the league — the sixth-highest tally in the Championship. Fifteen of those 24 goals conceded in 12 meetings with the eventual top six came on Welsh soil, undermining an otherwise respectable goals return against the division's best.

Whiteman, 30, arrives from Preston North End with five-and-a-half years of Championship experience and precisely the kind of defensive instincts Wrexham lacked. Opta ranked him second last season among 86 defensive and central Championship midfielders for blocked shots (0.94 per game) and clearances (3.14 per 90), while his eight progressive passes per game placed him 11th in that group.

A goalkeeper for the big occasion

Patterson, 26, joins from Premier League Sunderland with a proven record on the biggest stages. Twice at Wembley in play-off finals, he made decisive saves to help Sunderland climb from League One to the Premier League — first denying Sam Vokes one-on-one in the 2021-22 third-tier showpiece, then breaking Sheffield United hearts with an early stop against now Wrexham team-mate Kieffer Moore before keeping out Andre Brooks after the break.

Only Southampton's Bayern Munich loanee Daniel Peretz had a better rate of preventing goals last season, with Patterson expected to concede 1.4 goals for every one he actually let in. His tendency to go long with goal kicks (92 per cent last season) also fits Wrexham's preference to play in the opposition half, though he mixed things up more in open play during a loan spell at Millwall, where he kept seven clean sheets in 16 appearances.

Imray: attacking intent on the right

Imray, the first of Wrexham's three summer signings, cannot match the Championship experience of his new team-mates — he made just 16 appearances at this level for West Bromwich Albion on loan from Crystal Palace. But he showed on debut against Middlesbrough that he can thrive on the right flank, carrying on from a loan spell in which he registered the second-most take-ons per 90 among all full-backs in the Championship. His crossing posed a threat at the Riverside, and he heeded Parkinson's demand for wing-backs to attack the back post, narrowly failing to connect with a Callum Doyle delivery in the first half.

Patience pays at the Racecourse

Since Wrexham's return to the EFL in 2023, late signings have become a theme at the Racecourse Ground. Arthur Okonkwo and George Evans arrived in the final hours of the 2023 summer window, as did then-record signing Mo Faal a year later. Only Faal — currently out on loan at Port Vale — among Wrexham's six deadline-day signings in the past three summer windows can be said not to have worked out.

"People always say, 'Why does it get left so long?'" said Parkinson. "But there are so many circumstances that can dictate that. We are working as hard as ever behind the scenes. I don't think we've ever been a club who have been shy of making signings when the right players become available."

"There's been a good mood in the squad," he added. "I felt this group needed a pre-season together, I really did. Last time, it was disjointed, with players coming in at different times, as we knew it would be. We took gambles to get who we wanted. That meant being patient. Someone like Nathan Broadhead, Ipswich did not want to lose him. Those deals always take time. But we feel we have a special talent in Broady, so the wait was worth it."

'We're not where we want to be'

With the window open until 11pm UK time on September 1, Parkinson wants more in a division that looks stronger than ever thanks to relegated trio West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley.

"It is going to be a really exciting season," Parkinson said. "The Championship is unpredictable, even from game to game. You must hold your nerve at all times and keep that consistency in your game. The depth of the squad has to be strong, it really has. We're not where we want to be. So, we've got some big decisions to make, as always, and hopefully by the end of this transfer window, we'll have the strength and quality."

Plenty of work remains, then, for Parkinson and Reynolds to get the kitchen they so desire before Monday's trip to Cardiff.