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A social media soundbite from Rob McElhenney was typically revealing. “If I’m being honest I don’t even know what the word consolidation means,” the Wrexham co-chair said. Days earlier, in between wheeling around the Racecourse Ground celebrating promotion from League One, he had told Ryan Reynolds that things were about to get “a little pricier from here on”.
Wrexham: welcome to the Championship. After three successive promotions to earn a slice of English football history, the Welsh club and their owners are steadying themselves for one of the most chaotic and competitive leagues on the planet.
So if there are no plans to consolidate, where do they go from here? Reynolds and McEhlenney have known nothing but success since their takeover in February 2021. Since a missed promotion in 2021-22, their side have romped through league after league, making a mockery of cynics’ predictions on the way.
But the Championship is a behemoth and McElhenney is wise to prepare for a dramatic increase in costs. Wrexham’s many critics will indicate they have been able to use their money and celebrity status to cherrypick the best players from higher divisions to aid their sharp rise. That is unlikely to happen now, even amid spurious transfer links with high-profile free agents such as Kevin De Bruyne and Jamie Vardy. Their revenue is no match for the bigger Championship clubs.
As the manager, Phil Parkinson, says: “We’re going into one of the most competitive leagues in world football. One of the most supported leagues. The jump in salaries is mind-blowing. I don’t think people outside football quite realise. But what we’ve always tried to do is make sure the culture in the club is right. No superstars, no egos in the dressing room. You always need extra quality when you go up a level, but it’s going to be the right people coming into the building.”
“People will talk about the money, but it’s never been about blank cheques,” says the director Humphrey Ker. “The aim has always been to live within our means so the club doesn’t suffer when Ryan and Rob move on, which will eventually happen, even if it’s decades from now.”
Parkinson says any big-name signings would struggle to top Reynolds and McElhenney for superstar status anyway. He praises the Hollywood duo for their smart and selfless ownership, as he has done regularly on this journey, their mantra being: “We don’t make football decisions.” That humility will be all-important to survive and compete in the Championship, for all Reynolds’ claims that the Premier League has always been the goal.
“It’s a collective,” says Parkinson. “There’s lots of ways owners can be supportive: it can be to make sure we get that key player when we need it most, but it can also be support when results don’t go your way. They’re invested in all the decisions but they trust us and that’s been a key element to our success.
“You look at people who buy football clubs – and there’s lots of examples recently – and I think: ‘Hmm, that’s going to be an expensive learning curve for you.’ Because if you buy a business you have to employ people to run it for you unless you’ve got great experience.”
Parkinson has his own scars from the Championship. He still ranks sealing second-tier survival for Bolton in 2017-18 as one of his greatest managerial achievements. Wanderers were under a transfer embargo yet defied the odds to stay up. They began the next season locked out of their training ground and with players on strike over unpaid wages, amid a series of financial difficulties, and were relegated in 2019.
It will be very different for Wrexham, who will continue to sign and sell players with the goal of challenging the Championship status quo. “The speed we’ve evolved as a club means some great players, great characters have left us,” Parkinson says. “But my job is to keep improving the squad all the time.”
after newsletter promotion
One player who may have to leave with a heavy heart after Wrexham complete their season at Lincoln City on Saturday is Paul Mullin. The striker scored goals by the bucket-load in the National League and League Two to earn folk hero status in Wrexham, but has been frozen out in recent months after the January arrivals of the club record £2m signing, Sam Smith, and Jay Rodriguez. Mullin is 30 and has never played in the Championship.
“There’s a lot of tough decisions to be made,” Parkinson says. “We’re going to recruit the right players and get the squad as strong as we can, and enjoy the ride, because I think that’s really important.”
The building of a new Kop Stand, a 5,500-capacity facility that includes hospitality sections to generate more revenue and a roof that will amplify the atmosphere, is in the works, although it will not open until summer 2026 – by which time Wrexham will hope to be in the Championship at the least.
“I’m confident we’ll be ready,” says Parkinson. “We need to evaluate in terms of the budget, the wages those players are going to demand and balance that quality with the culture we’ve built here. We’ll sit down and reflect with the owners.”
After Parkinson joked that Reynolds and McElhenney “must think this game is easy”, it is clear the next chapter in Wrexham’s Hollywood story will be the most captivating.
