Wrexham are on the rise—and they’re showing no signs of slowing down. After clinching a third straight promotion, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s side are preparing for life in the Championship with bold ambition.
We’ve been tracking what comes next for the club—and how they plan to make this latest step count by chatting to Wrexham expert, Rich Fay.
We’ve been tracking what comes next for the club—and how they plan to make this latest step count by chatting to Wrexham expert, Rich Fay.
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00:00Wrexham are on the rise and they are showing no signs of slowing down.
00:08After clinching a third straight promotion, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's side are preparing for life in the championship with bold ambition.
00:17Recruitment will be key with a solid core already in place.
00:20The focus is on adding proven championship quality without disrupting the team's spirit that's carried them so far.
00:27Infrastructure and staff development are also part of the plan as Wrexham aim to establish themselves, not just survive.
00:35They've defied expectations before. So how far can this remarkable story go?
00:40We've been tracking what comes next for the club and how they plan to make this the latest step count by chatting to Wrexham expert Rich Faye.
00:49You know, we've mentioned the sort of competitive nature of all the English leagues now and Wrexham so close to the championship.
00:59Let's just look ahead if they are to go up.
01:02You know, we've mentioned before how, you know, the squad might need to change.
01:05There could be wholesale changes this summer.
01:07They'll need to break, you know, transfer records and really sort of look ahead to how they're going to cope in the division.
01:14Obviously, the relegation battle in the championship this season has been incredibly tight.
01:19I mean, it will go to the final day, you feel.
01:22For XMR to go up, how do you feel they navigate the championship?
01:26It's such a massive golf in class.
01:28You know, it's probably one of the biggest in Europe in terms of the step up from League One to championship football.
01:35Are you confident?
01:37It's a complete whirlwind to go into.
01:39It's a complete mystery at the moment as to how they will navigate.
01:42But I'm sure that the pitching will become clearer, you know, as the summer goes on.
01:46You know, if they were to get there to the championship, it would be the biggest jump really imaginable for the club.
01:51Because, you know, championship to Premier League is huge.
01:54We've seen that with the teams who've gone up and gone down, you know, recently in back-to-back seasons.
01:59But there's been so many teams as well who have yo-yoed between League One and the championship.
02:03And they're very good teams with good managers and some very good players.
02:06And even if you look at the Wrexham squad now, some of Wrexham's better players are the likes of Rathbone, James.
02:11You know, these are players who were released from championship clubs.
02:15George Dobson, they were released and allowed to come to Wrexham.
02:20So there's a reason they maybe weren't deemed championship quality in the first place.
02:24If you're looking at like raw individual talent, it would need a massive overhaul this summer.
02:30They need younger players, maybe fitter players, a bit more about them.
02:34They maybe couldn't play the same style of football for as long as they have to.
02:38So Wrexham will take, you know, great encouragement, though, seeing what Oxford United have done this season in the championship.
02:44They've exceeded expectation, really.
02:46I know Portsmouth as well look destined to come down, but sort of turned things around and had their season back on track to a degree as well.
02:53So I don't think it is this monumental challenge that some people are maybe making it out to be.
02:59Look what Ipswich did.
03:00You know, they went back-to-back themselves.
03:02And a key reason they did that, they recruited smartly, got some really good experienced players in.
03:08But they also just had that momentum.
03:10And even the season Wrexham didn't go up for the National League, it was only in the playoff semifinal that they lost.
03:17So if you look at it, Wrexham will have had four seasons in a row in which they basically won every single week.
03:23And that just means the mentality of the squad is just so high.
03:28You know, they've got so much belief.
03:30They've overcome so many different challenges, so much adversity that Wrexham will go to the championship and they will think, oh, we can survive.
03:37We know we can because we're so used to winning at home, so used to getting these results and defying the odds that I think that they have a very good chance of staying up.
03:45They'd have to spend a lot of money.
03:47They'd have to make those ruthless calls that fans don't always agree with.
03:50But I think just because they've got that momentum and that belief, they can stay up.
03:55That's what I think would be the absolute bottom line ambition for next season to be competitive, to try to stay in a division.
04:02But if you're being, you know, a bit carried away and a bit too giddy, like I said, a team that's been promoted three times in a row,
04:08you can't really say that they suddenly just start losing every week?
04:11Because I know in the modern world of football, you look at stats, you look at money, you look at what makes a player better than another player.
04:17I think that was one of the performances where you really did believe that they've got something about them as Rickson team.
04:23It was a week after they'd lost the derby to Shrewsbury as well, fierce rivals, and they responded in style.
04:29I think from that moment, there was then that inner belief that they can still produce those big performances against the better teams in division.
04:37And for me, that probably was the turning point where you felt, OK, if they can do that against Birmingham at home, they can beat anyone.