Wrexham AFC sent clear message over Adam Armstrong situation - there are 'worse targets' than Southampton ace | OneFootball

FLW's Wrexham Fan Pundit Liam believes the club should pursue a move for Adam Armstrong over Sidiki Cherif.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Having gained three successive promotions and propelled themselves from non-league football to having a genuine chance of Premier League promotion, Wrexham have been on a remarkable ride in recent years.

Under the management of Phil Parkinson, and with the backing of owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, the Red Dragons find themselves in an excellent position to potentially finish in the top six and the play-off places this season.

Wrexham most recently pulled off a 3-2 victory over Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road, meaning that they have suffered just one defeat in their last eight matches across all competitions.

That run of form has left them tucked inside the top six with 17 games to go, with only the top three of Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough having lost fewer than them thus far.

As they try and finish the season with a flourish and ensure that their run-in is a successful one, the big spending and ambitious Welsh outfit look set to go big once again this month with a couple of attackers having been lined up.

Having recently been linked with a £19 million move for Angers attacker Sidiki Cherif, it has now been reported by Alan Nixon, via his Patreon, that they want Southampton man Adam Armstrong in a £15 million move.

Adam Armstrong would be more of a banker for Wrexham

As has been the case throughout their rise through the divisions, Wrexham have brought in players whereby, regardless of what their ceiling may be, their floor is either at or way above the level that they are playing at.

They have continued that into this season and it is not necessarily a surprise to see them targeting Adam Armstrong who has often been almost too good for the Championship. He is also a striker that FLW’s Wrexham Fan Pundit Liam Grice believes would be his preference over Sidiki Cherif.

Liam says: “I actually think that the thing with Armstrong is that the fee is still quite high but he is a proven scorer in this domestic league so you kind of know more of what you are paying for as fans.

“He’s already got into double figures this year with a struggling Southampton side, while Cherif has only scored four in his domestic league.

“In terms of you know what you are going to get, I would prefer us to go for Armstrong but Cherif obviously has the potential to be better than him.

“There is only a £4 million difference at the end of the day and, so, if we want to spend that bit extra for future proofing our team, then I’m all for that as well, but I think that Armstrong isn’t a bad back-up option, given how good he has been in recent seasons in this division and I think we can definitely go for worse targets than Armstrong.”

Adam Armstrong guarantees goals in the Championship

The idea that a player ‘guarantees goals’ is often nonsensical and quite lazy as it simply looks at a player’s statistics from a completely different environment and suggests he can replicate them at a different club and in a different style.

However, the fact that Armstrong has previously struck over 20 goals in a Championship season for both Tony Mowbray’s high octane Blackburn Rovers as well as Russell Martin’s very deliberate and possession-dominant Southampton would suggest he is more than capable of successfully adapting his game to suit any system.

Even this season, as Saints chopped from Will Still and changed to Tonda Eckert amid a majorly underwhelming campaign, Armstrong has remained impressive with 11 goals – only bettered by Swansea City striker Zan Vipotnik.

The one concern that Wrexham fans should be aware of and wary of would be that perhaps Armstrong’s most disappointing six-month stint during his career came when on loan at Bolton Wanderers under Phil Parkinson in the first-half of the 2017/18 campaign.

Often played out-wide in a 4-2-3-1 shape for a very poor and defensive-minded Bolton side, Armstrong failed to adapt to the quite direct Parkinson style and scored just one goal in 20 Championship appearances.