Get your Disney+ subscription at the ready, because Welcome to Wrexham season 4 is on the way this weekend and there’s going to be some juicy stories to sink your teeth into.
Welcome to Wrexham is always great viewing anyway, but the fact that the Red Dragons have yet another promotion to celebrate this season just makes it all the sweeter.
Phil Parkinson’s men secured an EFL first with a third-successive promotion this season after finishing second in League One, and life in the Championship now lies ahead.
But, before we get stuck into the summer transfer window and the challenges of the second tier, there are some huge storylines that we need more context on, and Welcome to Wrexham season 4 will surely deliver.
What does Welcome to Wrexham season 4 have in store for us?
Paul Mullin pushed to the sidelines
The main debate around Wrexham this season has been the manner in which Paul Mullin has gone from club legend and key player, to being excluded from the matchday squad for the second half of the campaign.
We still don’t quite know whether it’s down to his form, his fitness, or a more personal matter behind the scenes (or all three), but we firmly expect there to be answers in the show.
Mullin’s career has nosedived this season, and frankly, he needs to move on to resurrect it, but it’s still unclear whether he will be handed a second chance next year or if Parkinson really does see him as surplus to requirements.
Birmingham City rivalry emerges
With Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds on one side, and Tom Brady on the other, Wrexham and Birmingham were always going to be rivals this season.
It’s largely a friendly, competitive rivalry between two clubs with big budgets and even bigger reputations thanks to their superstar owners, but nobody really expected the sides to be as close to one another on the pitch, too.
Birmingham may have romped to the title in the end, but Wrexham pushed them close for a while. In the end, this provoked some cheeky jibes from Birmingham that will have wound Wrexham fans up, but it will make for very entertaining television.
Wrexham decided to splash the cash in January
At the turn of the year, Wrexham were well-placed to maintain their surprise promotion push, but they needed a little bit of help to get over the line.
After some interesting conversations with Michael Williamson, it’s said Rob and Ryan decided to go big in the transfer market to achieve that dream of promotion.
We can’t wait to see how the record signing of Sam Smith, plus the additions of Ryan Longman and former Premier League star Jay Rodriguez went down, and to see the looks on Rob and Ryan’s faces when they were told how much it would all cost!
Still, it all worked out in the end, and now Wrexham have Championship revenue streams to look forward to.
Welsh League Cup plans shot down
Wrexham’s ultimate dream is to make it to the Premier League and, eventually, qualify for European competition. That second part very nearly became a lot more feasible when, midway through this season, plans for a Welsh League Cup emerged.
Suffice to say, the English FA and EFL were not happy with this idea, and it was said it could threaten Wrexham’s progress in the league and cup competitions they already compete in.
The Welsh League Cup could have been a gamechanger for Wrexham and the other Welsh clubs, but the staunch opposition killed the dream dead. It will be fascinating to see just how eager the Wrexham chiefs were to get this one over the line, and how strongly they were opposed behind the scenes.
Wrexham’s rollercoaster ride to promotion
Obviously, the big story of the season is the fact that Wrexham got promoted. We saw it all unfold on the pitch anyway, but to be a fly on the wall in that dressing room at times would be absolutely amazing.
From the lows of defeats to Shrewsbury Town and Reading when all hope appeared to be lost, to those final weeks of the season where everything turned in Wrexham’s favour, it will be thrilling to watch it all unfold again.
Wrexham are returning to the second tier for the first time in 43 years, and the promotion parties both at home and abroad (and in Las Vegas) will be a joy to witness.