After Wrexham, world champion chelsea.
A place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup will be on the line when the two teams meet at the Racecourse Grounds on Saturday. Wrexham That will be a timely indicator of how “Premier League-ready” they are.
Speaking to industry experts last week, Wrexham chief executive Michael Williamson said the Welsh club: Owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney — will be ready to rise to the top of English football when the time comes. Next season, just three years after playing non-league.
“What we’ve proven is that in our culture we’re pretty well prepared,” Williamson said at the FT Business of Football Summit.
Despite celebrity ownership, huge financial backing and worldwide recognition thanks to the immersive documentary series Welcome to Wrexham, it is difficult to overstate just how impressive the club’s rise has been.
Successive promotions took them from non-league games in crumbling stadiums to the Second Division Championship, and from play-off contention to the Premier League.
The prospect of playing against a team like Chelsea every week is not only a hope for Wrexham’s owners, but also a mission.
“They’ve been saying that since day one, and everyone laughed at it,” Williamson said. “We know what we have to do. It’s really difficult, but we can do it because we’ve proven that we can not only survive promotion, but we can actually grow.”
Wrexham’s meteoric rise has meant they have always been playing catch-up to match their on-field success. They have signed more than 60 players since the takeover was completed in 2021, with 16 joining last summer, building a squad capable of competing in the first division with former Premier League champions Leicester and a number of clubs with more recent top-flight experience.
Still, its spending is nothing like that of England’s top airlines. Nathan Broadhead signed a record contract with Wrexham for a reported $10 million in August. Before him, Sam Smith cost a reported $2.7 million.
Compare that to Chelsea, who have spent nearly $2 billion under American owner Todd Boley and Clear Lake Capital since buying the club in 2022. That money helped Chelsea win last year’s Club World Cup, but they fell short of winning the Premier League and could miss out on qualifying for the Champions League this season.
strive to survive
With promoted teams increasingly struggling to step up, Wrexham’s spending is likely to have to rise significantly again to bridge the widening gap between the Premier League and the Championship.
All three teams promoted last season (Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton) were relegated. The previous year, Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton all failed to survive their first season in the top flight.
If Wrexham secure promotion for the fourth year in a row, Williamson said: “We’ll have to look at changes to the squad and we’re definitely planning on that.”
There have been frequent changes in players, but manager Phil Parkinson has remained consistent, with McElhenny recently telling him he has the job of a lifetime.
His immediate focus is on the FA Cup upset against Chelsea.
“We’ll do our best to produce a really good performance and let’s see where it takes us on the night,” he told the North Wales Chronicle. “But we know we have to respect Chelsea. What a team of players they have. They’ve spent billions of dollars over the last 10 years. They know they have to respect Chelsea.”
“They are Club World Cup champions and I don’t think we should forget that, but statistically we are playing against the best club in the world.”
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James Robson is https://x.com/James Saran Robson
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