Wrexham are enjoying yet more success with another promotion to celebrate this season, but some have contested whether they are actually the first club to achieve three successive promotions.
The Hollywood fairytale under Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds continues to deliver happy endings for Wrexham fans, as the club secured second place in League One and with it, access to the Championship next season.
It will be the first time Wrexham have played in the second tier in 43 years, and will give the Red Dragons a real chance to show how far they have come under the stewardship of their superstar owners and the management of Phil Parkinson.
The idea of back-to-back-to-back promotions is almost unheard of, and Wrexham have been heralded for the impressive achievement, but are they really the first to manage it?
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Wrexham make history with third-successive promotion
Going from National League obscurity to Championship football in four years is truly astounding, and getting those three-successive promotions is indeed the first time any club in the EFL has managed that exact feat.
It cost Wrexham a pretty penny, between player bonuses for winning promotion and the decision from Rob and Ryan to go big in January on signing new players, but it was all worth it.
No club has ever won promotion from the National League (or Conference as it was previously called), then League Two, and League One in successive seasons, meaning Wrexham will go into the history books.
Stockport County are not far behind, especially if they go up via the League One play-offs this season. However, after beating Wrexham to promotion from the National League in 2022, Dave Challinor’s men spent a year in League Two before going on to pip the Red Dragons to the title there last season.
We’ve also seen teams like Watford, Southampton, and more recently, Ipswich Town, go from League One to the Premier League in successive years, which is a magnificent achievement given the step up in quality when you reach the second tier.
Rob McElhenney says Wrexham are ‘not done yet’, so perhaps they can do the unthinkable and go up again next season? Now that would truly be a miracle.
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Other clubs will contest Wrexham’s record-breaking feat
So, in the EFL, no one can challenge Wrexham’s success, though rival fans are trying to question the integrity of the promotion when you look on social media.
There’s also plenty of comments among the replies to a certain post by Sky Sports, which hailed Wrexham are the “first team to go back-to-back-to-back in senior football,” which raise doubts as to just how unique the Red Dragons’ latest promotion is.
While fans of Watford, Wolves, and Northampton claim their team have achieved the same, that’s simply not true.
Watford went back-to-back in 1977/78 and 1978/79, going from Division Four to Division Two, but they would have to wait until 1981/82 to get themselves to Division One.
Likewise, Northampton enjoyed great success in the early 1960s, going from Division Four to Division One, but it took them five seasons to make the climb.
But, there are teams out there who can genuinely contest Sky Sports’ claim and rank themselves alongside Wrexham in the history books.
The most notable is Scottish side Gretna FC, who won three successive league titles in 2005, 2006, and 2007 to go from Scotland’s fourth tier to the SPL in back-to-back-to-back campaigns. They also qualified for Europe thanks to a Scottish Cup final appearance in 2007, too.
Plenty of clubs in England have managed similar feats, though the likes of Chester FC only got promoted through Non-League divisions, going from the eighth tier of English football to the sixth tier in three seasons.
There are also clubs across the world that have won back-to-back-to-back promotions, including Parma in Italy, Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Belenenses in Portugal. Admittedly, no club has ever climbed through such a competitive football ladder as quickly as Wrexham, though.
And, with Rob and Ryan plotting a £40m assault on the Championship this summer, their greatest achievement could still be yet to come.