Cardiff City fans will love what Conor Coady has said about Brian Barry-Murphy | OneFootball

The Wrexham defender worked with the Irishman at Leicester City in 2024/25

The 2026/27 Championship season will have a strong sense of Welsh representation, with three of the country's four EFL clubs set to battle it out for national bragging rights on a wider scale.

That's because, whilst Wrexham were unable to make even more unprecedented history under the ownership of Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, Cardiff City bounced straight back to the second tier by finishing second in League One behind Lincoln City, in what was Brian Barry-Murphy's first season in charge at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Prior to the Irishman's arrival, the Bluebirds had slowly been on a downward curve in recent times since their relegation out of the Premier League under Neil Warnock seven years ago, with it culminating in a first season in the third tier for over 20 years.

However, whilst, even in League One in recent times, it has been well-documented that a multitude of clubs have been able to splash the cash in order to facilitate a sustained promotion bid, City certainly bucked that trend, as well as their fellow automatic winners and eventual champions.

Indeed, the 47-year-old, who was previously best known in a managerial sense for a previous spell in charge of Rochdale, also in League One at the time, has since developed a strong reputation when it comes to developing some extremely talented homegrown players, and that has proven to be the case once more in South Wales.

And, it's fair to say that those who have shared a similar environment to Barry-Murphy in recent times aren't overly shocked by the immediacy of his success with Cardiff, who are now looking upwards as a club once again.

Wrexham defender Conor Coady praises Cardiff City boss Brian Barry-Murphy amid previous Leicester City connections

As previously mentioned, a first-time promotion will see Cardiff contest the South Wales derby versus Swansea City yet again, as well as setting up a first league meeting with Wrexham since March 2002.

The two sides did, of course, meet in the last 16 of the EFL Cup last October, with Barry-Murphy's side emerging 2-1 victors at the Stok Cae Ras against Phil Parkinson's men, with Conor Coady featuring in defence for the Red Dragons last night.

It hasn't perhaps been the season which Coady envisaged, having spent the second half of the campaign on loan at Charlton Athletic after an initial move to North Wales ended a mixed two-year period with Leicester City, where he didn't see the greatest number of appearances come his way.

However, during that period, the ex-England defender did work with Barry-Murphy, as he was on Ruud Van Nistelrooy's coaching team at the King Power Stadium following Steve Cooper's exit in late 2024.

But, speaking on the Overlap, the 33-year-old was full of praise towards his former colleague.

"He was a coach at Leicester under Ruud (Van Nistelrooy)," Coady explained.

"He's one of the most unbelievable coaches I've ever had in my career," he stated.

"In terms of detail, how he sets up his sessions. He would do everything as Ruud was more of a manager, so Brian would take everything.

"His sessions were top," Coady added. "Really enjoyable to be in. The possession sessions, passing drills, shooting drills. Whatever you were doing, it was brilliant.

"It doesn't surprise me (what he's done at Cardiff). I think it's really clever what they've done."

"If that was their plan to really promote the young lads, they've not got a better fella than Bri(an) at the helm to do that.

"He's come through (Manchester) City and different things, but he's got a way with people."

"In terms of coaching younger players, I don't think there's many better," Coady claimed.

Brian Barry-Murphy will hope to prove his worth at Championship level with Cardiff City

At this stage, Barry-Murphy has never managed above League One level, but has certainly been the recipient of strong praise from those who have been in his company for some time.

As such, he will hope to prove his worth at Championship level, particularly after recent reports surfaced, linking him with the vacant job at newly-relegated Burnley following Scott Parker's exit from Turf Moor.

It does remain to be seen how well he will be backed by Vincent Tan in the transfer market, but there will also be hope that the likes of Dylan Lawlor, Ronan Kpakio, Rubin Colwill and Yousef Salech, among others, continue to shine in the Championship.