The future of Wrexham goalkeeper Ben Foster has been up in the air since the season ended but in a recent podcast appearance, he issued an update on his current thoughts about re-signing and looked ahead to life in League Two.
Ben Foster has become a cult hero at Wrexham following two successful spells with the club, the first of which saw the Red Dragons lift the EFL Trophy – then known as the LDV Vans Trophy – while he helped the side win promotion back to the Football League in his highly publicised second stint in Wales.
Since the promotion-winning season ended, however, questions have arisen about the 40-year-old goalkeeper’s future and speaking to The Fellas podcast, Ben Foster issued an update on his plans for next season and also offered his thoughts on how Wrexham could fair in League Two.
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Ben Foster confirms Wrexham future
On June 9, it was announced that Ben Foster will be staying at Wrexham for one more year after signing a contract extension with the club.
The goalkeeper’s re-signing for Wrexham comes just days after a podcast appearance in which Foster said he was still undecided on whether to commit to another season.
Appearing on the May 30 edition of The Fellas podcast, Foster revealed that he was still considering whether to re-sign for Wrexham following their promotion to League Two.
“If I do next year, which I’m not sure if I will yet, I’m still undecided, I’ve a decision, a really big decision to make,” said the 40-year-old.
“But a big part of it will be because of how good the lads are, they’re the best,” he added. “They’re probably the best changing room I’ve ever been in. Just proper normal blokes.”
Later on in the interview, Foster explained his thought process behind potentially re-signing and whether the club would be flexible in regard to his commitments.
“The wages will never be a stumbling block,” he began. “From what I had been earning, especially for the last ten, fifteen years, it’s by the by, so that’s never a problem or a worry for me anyway.”
“What has to work if I did sign for Wrexham next season, they’d have to be flexible with days off basically.”
“I live a couple of hours away from Wrexham so if I’m driving to training, that’s two hours and then I’d train, and then to get home, you’ve got to get through [the] M6, through Birmingham, it’d take you three hours sometimes,” Foster explained.
“But to be fair, in the six weeks that I did, the club were so good with me, they were so flexible, they gave me extra days off,” he continued. “We’d play on a Saturday, they’d give me Sunday, Monday off, I’d train Tuesday, we’d all have a day off on Wednesday anyway, so I’d only be training really three days for the game on the Saturday which is fantastic.”
“It’s perfect for me as an older footballer as well,” the 40-year-old said. “You need to learn your body and I’ve got very good at doing that as I’ve gotten a bit older.”
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Looking ahead to life in League Two
With his future at Wrexham now secure, Foster is confident that the team will cope with the step up into League Two not.
“I think we’ll do all right, I really do,” he explained in the podcast. “That first day of training when I got to see them [the Wrexham players], I thought ‘there’s no way you’re National League.’”
“First of all, I thought ‘you would do all right in League One you lot would, you would genuinely do all right in League One, maybe even in the Championship, you would hold your own.’”
“Wrexham last season beat Coventry in the FA Cup,” he said. “They held Sheffield United at home to a 3-3 draw. Sheffield United scored a last-minute equaliser and then they only just narrowly lost in the reverse fixture as well.”
“So they know how to play these players and they will step up their game when they need to,” Foster continued. “I’ve already seen a stat where Wrexham are favourites to get promoted already – so we’ve just been promoted and now we’re favourites to get promoted again.”
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