Wrexham have enjoyed great success under Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, but their success is outpacing how fast the club is able to grow.
Wrexham were still a National League side in 2023, spending a staggering 15 seasons in the fifth tier of English football.
Their second full season under Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds ended with promotion up to League Two, and it has all been uphill from there.
Wrexham made club history in 2024/25 after they secured a record 92 points to finish second in League One.
The Red Dragons will compete in the Championship from 2025/26, getting their first taste of second-tier football for over four decades.
But while the club’s rise up the EFL has been nothing short of remarkable, some infrastructure at the club is still not where it should be.
What Paul Mullin asked Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney for
Paul Mullin, who joined the Reynolds and McElhenney project back in 2021, was quick to point this out in 2023.
The striker, who has firmly cemented himself as a club legend, released a book that year titled ‘My Wrexham Story’.
Within the book, Mullin sent a demand to Reynolds and McElhenney, expressing the importance of the club finally getting their own training ground.
He wrote: “These days we train at Colliers Park, the National Football Development Centre of the Football Association of Wales, ten minutes down the road from the Racecourse.
“Other times we use Carden Park, a leisure complex about 15 miles away. They’re both brilliant, but the fact that everything – training pitch, gym, restaurant – isn’t in one place still isn’t ideal.
“It means more travelling and constant changes of clothes and gear – not a big deal in the big scheme of things but something any professional football club would be keen to iron out. When we have our own dedicated training facility – these things don’t happen overnight – it will be another big step forward.”
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What Wrexham chiefs have said about new training ground
Mullin was fair in his assessment as such a huge project, as he says, obviously can’t happen overnight.
But we are now in 2025, and Wrexham are set to compete in the Championship without their own training ground for senior players.
Michael Williamson spoke about Wrexham’s training facilities in February 2025 and outlined the importance of investing:
He said: “As we move up, recruitment of players in the Championship and Premier League becomes more difficult because they are looking at what facilities are being provided for the players.
“Training facilities are a critical part of that and we absolutely need to invest in training facilities. Colliers Park is fantastic, the pitch is fantastic but it’s not ours.
“We start to talk about percent differences, like one or two percent difference that can mean winning or not winning a match.
“That’s where having proper training facilities and proper rehabilitation facilities gives the players the best opportunity for them to be able to perform for the ninety minutes.”
Reynolds’ comments in 2024, as per Leader Live, were similar. He stated: “We need a training ground badly.
“There’s a bunch of different options we’re looking at but yeah it is huge, not just huge for the club but huge for everybody.
“We want it to be something that is experienced by everyone who lives in Wrexham as well so there’s a lot of careful planning going into it.
“It’s the same where I grew up in Canada, there’s a lot of bureaucracy, it’s not just as easy as saying let’s build this thing or grow this thing you have to get 800 permits before you’re allowed to.”
But as things stand, they will go into their first Championship season still without their own training facility.