Tan Kesler, a former board member of the EFL and former vice-chairman of Hull City, has been talking about the differences between Wrexham and their newfound rivals Birmingham City, who’ve both been promoted to the Championship for next season.
It’s been two completely different journeys for Birmingham City and Wrexham. But last season they finished 1st and 2nd in the League One table respectively, and next season they’re again on level footing in the Championship.
Birmingham City have ambitious plans for this summer but so too do Phil Parkinson’s side, who’ve recently signed Danny Ward on a free transfer to take their summer signings tally to two so far, along with the signing of Ryan Hardie from Plymouth Argyle.
And both teams are tipped to stabilise in the Championship. But rival figures are wary about how Birmingham City and Wrexham will impact the Championship, with Portsmouth chief executive Andy Cullen explaining how the two will ‘distort’ the league because of their spending power.
Meanwhile, Millwall manager Alex Neil also rued the spending power of Birmingham City and Wrexham, suggesting that the roster next season could hold a few more surprises than usual, especially with three wealthy teams coming down from the Premier League.
Tan Kesler discusses Birmingham City and Wrexham in the Championship
Speaking on talkSPORT, Tan Kesler has now discussed Birmingham City and Wrexham ahead of the 2025/26 Championship season, and he’s explained why they’re two very different cases, and how he envisions Wrexham running into some complications in the future.
He said: “I think they’re two different cases in my opinion, especially Birmingham, when they were relegated, they took full advantage of the financial regulations being more flexible in League One. And they tried to invest financially heavily in talent and kind of make their way up to the Championship.
“Wrexham’s strategy was quite unique, I think, for everyone that they kind of based on content creating and then maximising their revenue streams and using them very wisely on a progressive basis to promote all the way to the championship.
“The future, I mean, the Championship is a very, very competitive league. So I do see some challenges with the Wrexham organisation, but at the same time, they can turn that to their advantage as well with their business model.”
Is the Wrexham model sustainable?
There’s no doubting that the success of Welcome to Wrexham, the sponsorships that the club has brought in from Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and so on, have made for an exceptional, and all-new method for clubs to push up the Football League.
It may never be replicated again. And whilst the going is good, there might be a time in a few years when Wrexham stall out and people lose interest, the sponsorships leave and Reynolds and McElhenney sell Wrexham, which has been speculated already this summer.
So Wrexham need to put in place a more sustainable, future-proof profitability plan. Birmingham City do look like the more long-term focused team right now, but that’s not to discredit what Wrexham have done, earning three-straight promotions and going from obscure Welsh team to globally recognised team.
Wrexham have a £25million transfer budget this summer and they’re ready to spend big on player wages too. For now, there seems to be no issues. But like Kesler predicts, we could soon see the club run into difficulties which are currently unforeseeable.