Backed by their Hollywood owners, Wrexham are on the up. With a trilogy of promotions on the cards, Van Wilder is getting ready. But with the kegs out and the punchbowls poured, they might just want to put their red cups down, once they realise that there’s the mother of all headaches waiting for them in the Championship.
With 48 minutes until kick off, Ryan Reynolds is pitch side at a sun-soaked Racecourse Ground. With his shades on and wearing a custom club-crested khaki jacket, he’s recording a selfie video with an elderly couple, all-red in Wrexham gear. Of course, there are also several camera operators around this scene, with a sound engineer precariously waggling a snaking boom pole overhead. It’s an absurd juxtaposition ahead of the visit of League One strugglers Burton Albion, which I attended last weekend.
Seven Strikers!?
If you opened your FotMob app to see Wrexham 3-0 Burton, you’d assume that a side battling relegation had rightly been swatted away by their upwardly mobile hosts. Now, ultimately that is true. Reduced to 10 men after just eleven minutes, Burton were able to frustrate and occasionally threaten on the break for an hour, before they were eventually squashed but I’ve seen enough Wrexham performances this season to know they’ll need to be offering a lot more against tougher opponents.
Fair play to Reynolds and Rob McElhenney since they took over in 2020. They’ve invested off the pitch and been savvy with sponsors to maximise revenue off the back of the FX documentary. On the pitch is also where we’ve seen the cash splashed, primarily with wages high enough to tempt the big names.
Max Cleworth was the sole starter from their 21-22 National League play-off semi-final defeat to Grimsby Town that began the game against Burton. Only three other players from that squad remain at the club: Tom O’Connor and the strike-pairing of Ollie Palmer and Paul Mullin. Both forwards are now frozen out and this is the script for players on the rapid Wrexham rise. You will play your part and then exit stage left.
The strategy has been to either sign the division’s best players or become a final stop for ex-Premier League pros ready for one last dance. They can take a drop in wages but know that longer terms give them stability they won’t get elsewhere. It’s a level of short-termism, however, best illustrated by the SEVEN senior strikers in the squad.
Mullin is the poster boy of the Wrexham transfer strategy. Signing in 2021, he had just fired Cambridge into League One with 32 goals in 46 games. Footballers’ careers are short and dropping two tiers gave him financial stability and a move closer to his family home. He, like Palmer, has a contract that runs beyond this season and may sit that out or seek a summer move.
Jay Rodriguez is the latest aging star to rock up at the Racecourse and it’s taken him an age to get going. His three goals, including scoring from the rebound after missing his spot-kick against Stockport, are hardly a ringing endorsement of his abilities beyond this season. The 35-year-old went off with a calf complaint against Burton, with a striker three years his senior in Steven Fletcher replacing him.
Sam Smith is the ‘new Mullin’ in a striker signed at the peak of their powers ready to fire them through the leagues. He made it 16 League One goals on Saturday, five of which are for Wrexham since his January move from Reading. He played a handful of games in the second tier at Reading and in the seven years since, has made his name in the lower leagues. Jack Marriott rounded off the scoring last Saturday. He’s had a bit-part but again, is 30. There is a theme here.
Finally, bucking the trend is Mo Faal. At 22, the 6’5” striker has time on his side since his move from West Brom but has barely had a look-in and is another player who made his name out on loan in the lower leagues.
It’s a similar elsewhere across a bloated squad, with the average age currently sat at 29. Only Mansfield Town (31) have more players with creaking joints and aching muscles come Monday morning.
What’s the plan?
When you’ve got a team of players who tend to be better than everyone else, you can just wear sides down and eventually someone will get you the winner. Wrexham’s ‘vibes-ball’ and the churn of buying more and more players may keep working too. That’s despite the more stringent Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules of the Championship compared to those in League One. With a turnover last season of £26.7m, even in League Two, they bring in more than the average Championship club not in receipt of parachute payments following a recent relegation from the Premier League (£21.7m). But with £11m spent on wages, Wrexham still made a loss of over £2m, so let’s look at how the team play, rather than just talk about the money.
Phil Parkinson’s plan is relatively simple. It’s about moving the ball quickly, working it into the box and feeding one of those seven strikers. If it doesn’t work, they recycle the ball and go again. The wingbacks are the main protagonists for getting it in from wide and at 5.8 accurate crosses per game, only Rotherham get it in the mixer more often. Unsurprisingly with aging attackers, they don’t press in the final third but rely on their quality to make the difference and at this level it is has certainly paid off.
But can they do it again against tougher opposition in the division above?
At the other end of the pitch, Wrexham have excelled. The superb Arthur Okonkwo has climbed the ladder with the club. Having originally signed on loan from Arsenal, the 23-year-old has the joint-most League One clean sheets this season (16). Wrexham have 21 in total and were it not for a broken wrist in November, Okonkwo would have more. He’s prevented an additional five goals, one of the best figures in the division and he has the highest save percentage too (77.4%). His best years are ahead of him and that is exactly what Wrexham need.
The recent acquisition of 24-year-old Ryan Longman from Hull City is another example that the hierarchy may be starting to think longer-term.
Rolling the dice in the Championship?
Bournemouth show that a small side can survive and thrive in the top flight but Wrexham are a long way off that. If they make it into the second tier, they will be playing against giants of English football (sleeping or otherwise). And then there’s the elephant in the room. The Championship is football’s biggest casino. There are owners gambling the future of their club on a shot at the big time.
Are Wrexham ready for those shark-infested waters? This is a league where every single club bar Watford made a loss and where £131 are spent on wages for every £100 brought in. They need only to look at promotion-rivals Reading to see how vast sums of money can evaporate and leave a club on the brink. And then throw in the ex-Premier League sides, replete with parachute payments and any top flight dream starts to feel fanciful.
But building more steadily would be a much more boring TV show, wouldn’t it? And for that elderly couple, they will have seen the dark times and can dare to dream along with their club’s owners. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, they’ve got five games to win first. The script is not yet written, and their current cast must shine now before thinking about Championship auditions.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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