da heads bet： Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are “desperate” to sign one player this summer, with Wrexham’s transfer plans being confirmed.
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Dragons have secured back-to-back promotionsReady to add again in summer windowOn-loan goalkeeper figures prominently on wish listGetty/GOALWHAT HAPPENED?
The Red Dragons have wrapped up back-to-back promotions, meaning that they will be playing League One football in 2024-25. Phil Parkinson has plenty of quality at his disposal, but the intention is to bolster the ranks at SToK Racecourse ahead of a completely new challenge in the third tier of English football.
AdvertisementWHAT KER SAID
Executive director Humphrey Ker has told the podcast of the recruitment blueprint, with Wrexham aware that they are no longer a big-spending fish in a small pond: “It’s just the quality of opposition. The jump from National League to League Two is big. The jump from League Two to League One is even bigger, I think. There is also a jump from the bottom half of League One to the top half. There is the danger of a Birmingham or a Huddersfield – big, big clubs with 25,000 or 30,000 crowds that are well resourced, well backed, well backed, well established. Eighteen months ago, to get a player out of a League One club was a huge coup for us. We are going to have to fight for every point we get – I don’t think there are going to be many 6-0s on the cards for us next season. Our approach will be, as it has been every summer and every winter, we will look to improve the squad. We will look to refresh and renew the playing squad. I think there is the core of a great League One team that we have got here and we’ll look to make additions to that.”
GettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE
One of the players that Wrexham are hoping to see in North Wales next season is Arthur Okonkwo, who has starred for the club on loan from Arsenal this term, with Ker adding on efforts at the recent EFL awards show to ensure that rival interest is not allowed to turn the 22-year-old goalkeeper’s head as he prepares to hit free agency: “I went to the EFL awards, we had two players nominated in the EFL League Two Team of the Season in Arthur Okonkwo and Elliot Lee. I had to go and man-mark Arthur because we knew there would be lots of people from other football clubs there and as we’re desperate to retain him this summer, we’ve got to make sure he doesn’t have too much polite chit-chat with people, without me appearing over his shoulder like ‘what are you guys talking about? I’m here too!’”
WHAT NEXT FOR WREXHAM?
Hollywood co-owners Reynolds and McElhenney are expected to make the funds available that will allow Parkinson to dip back into the transfer market, with plenty of movement expected once the playing staff have returned from another promotion-winning trip to Las Vegas.