Will Wrexham ever reach the Premier League? Phil Parkinson tells FourFourTwo the exact ambition of Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds
The Welsh club's boss is hoping to guide the Red Dragons up the Football League
Wrexham are well placed for a second successive promotion this season – and boss Phil Parkinson believes it’s possible for the club to reach the Premier League one day.
Parkinson guided the Welsh side back into the Football League for the first time in 15 years during 2023, as the Red Dragons claimed the National League title.
This season, they sit in the League Two automatic promotion places at the halfway stage, and while their manager is in no danger of getting ahead of himself or taking anything for granted, he does believe the club has the potential to progress all the way to the top flight under owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.
“We’re certainly not looking any further than the next game, but I said recently that, eventually, I don’t think the Premier League is impossible – look at Luton Town,” Parkinson told FourFourTwo in an exclusive interview.
“They got there with a brilliant structure behind the scenes, they gradually put building blocks in place, they made good decisions and got their rewards.
“There are clubs who try to achieve success and put themselves at huge risk financially by doing that, but this club isn’t one of them.
“The owners and myself want to create a club that’s strong for years to come. If we keep recruiting well, I hope there’s more to come.
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“Getting back into the Football League was also key for our academy – we’ve employed a lot of quality people recently and that will be crucial, because you’ve got to produce players yourselves. That only really started properly this summer.”
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Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from 20 countries, in places as varied as Jerusalem and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, Euro 2020 and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.