Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney made one incredibly bold call when taking over the club back in 2021 that isn’t far from coming true.
Wrexham have now achieved automatic promotion, reaching the Championship at the first time of asking, meaning that Phil Parkinson’s side have now managed back-to-back-to-back promotions.
It has been a spectacular season for Wrexham, and Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have sent praise to Parkinson for achieving such a monumentous feat to get the club into the Championship, no matter the financial backing that he had to get the job done.
Wrexham’s rise up the English football pyramid has certainly been a spectacle recently, and they are now even closer to achieving one of McElhenney’s dreams that he was initially laughed at for believing.
Rob McElhenney is closer to Premier League dreams with Wrexham after recent promotion
Wrexham now find themselves just one promotion away from reaching the Premier League, an incredible achievement considering the fact that Reynolds and McElhenney took over the club in the National League, the fifth tier of English football.
When taking over Wrexham, Reynolds and McElhenney certainly had lofty ambitions for the club, with the latter wanting to achieve his dream of taking the club to the Premier League, a hope that was initially written off by many.
Per ESPN, back in 2021, McElhenney said: “I don’t understand why, if that you can theoretically get there [Premier League] – we clearly have the structure and the system potentially to allow for us to grow at scale — why not dream big?”
The next potential promotion for Phil Parkinson’s side will take significant work
For many observers, some will think that, because of Wrexham’s ease of drifting through both League One and Two after emerging from the mires of the National League, that getting through the Championship will likely see the Welsh side continue on a similar trajectory, however, it will be a much more difficult task for the side.
Unlike previous seasons, Wrexham won’t quite have the huge financial firepower that helped them bring in top players next season, certainly not in comparison to some of the teams in the Championship.
Coming up against highly-established clubs such as Leicester City, Southampton, and Ipswich Town, all of which have been relegated from the Premier League, will be challenging for Wrexham, and would make the prospect of yet another promotion next season merely a pipe dream.
McElhenney is certainly closer to his dream of Premier League football, but the club will need to settle in the Championship before making that significant step up to the big leagues.