After the long-awaited promotion from the National League, and its sequel in League Two, Wrexham are on the brink of making the series of promotions into a trilogy.

Sitting in second place in League One, just a point above challengers Wycombe Wanderers, with two games to go, Phil Parkinson’s side are on the brink of English football history.

No club has ever won three successive promotions in the top five tiers of English football. Wrexham are 180 minutes away from history.

Just four years ago, before Hollywood came to north Wales, the outlook for the club looked very different. Over a decade stuck on the outside of the Football League looking in had left the town in a strange stasis.

Glitz and glamour of two high-profile, exceedingly, unabashed Americans broke the mould.

After 15 years of frustration in the National League, and at the second time of asking since the high-profile takeover of the club by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2020, Wrexham were promoted in spectacular fashion in 2023.

The previous season had seen the club fall short of an automatic promotion spot and subsequently lose in the play-off semi-final in extraordinary circumstances against Grimsby. A 118th minute heart breaker scored by the artfully named Luke Waterfall meant the Cleethorpes side won a modern classic 4-5.

Add in a 1-0 defeat to Bromley in the FA Trophy final at Wembley six days earlier, and plenty of rival fans were seeing the funny side of a club that had spent an unprecedented amount of money and with little to show for it.

Not that Town fans want to dwell on those matches when such success was just around the corner.

Wrexham, buoyed by the money brought in by Hollywood owners, came back stronger, losing just three times over the 46-game season and scoring a remarkable 116 goals on the way to promotion into the Football League as champions.

The catharsis felt by the town was only matched by the wild celebrations from the fans – and the players, who were treated to a trip to Las Vegas, paid for by Reynolds and McElhenney.

Most of the core of the squad were retained for Wrexham’s first venture into League Two football in a decade and a half, with eye-catching additions of James McClean, Steven Fletcher, Jack Marriott, and Arthur Okonkwo adding necessary quality and experience.

Perhaps the best sign of the heights that Wrexham had aspirations to reach was their preseason.

The club, that only 12 years before had to be saved from oblivion by its own fans, toured the United States, playing Premier League giants Chelsea and Manchester United, as well as Major League Soccer sides LA Galaxy and Philadelphia Union.

The trip was a success, with victories over Manchester United and LA Galaxy proving that the Wrexham squad would adapt well to the challenge of a new league.

A 3-5 home defeat to MK Dons kicked last season off, coupled scorelines of 4-2, 5-5, 0-5, and 6-0, marked Wrexham out as League Two’s great entertainers.

After that opening day defeat, though, Parkinson’s side only lost twice more before Christmas and were well in the race for back-to-back promotions.

Despite a winter-time wobble, the project took another leap forward when a Paul Mullin brace and 6-0 thrashing of Forest Green Rovers sealed promotion in the spring sunshine.

Cue the celebrations, a town in jubilation, another trip to Las Vegas. Pretty soon Mullin, Elliot Lee, James McClean et al will be bored of casinos, pool parties, and expensive hotels.

A second preseason in the United States meant more high-profile matches with Premier League sides and, of course, more transfer spending.

Okonkwo signed permanently from Arsenal, while George Dobson, Matty James, and Sebastian Revan joined in eye-catching deals from clubs in the Championship.

Wrexham, with the sheer number of new players signed, needed to let go of others. Aaron Hayden, Ben Tozer, Rob Lainton, Luke Young, and Jordan Tunnicliffe – all key parts of the previous two promotion campaigns – were released.

Despite the carefully presented family club image of the club that Reynolds and McElhenney show on the Disney+ documentary series ‘Welcome To Wrexham’, it is clear that their aim for Wrexham is to reach the promised land of the Premier League.

Ambitious clubs do not climb up the leagues from the fifth tier to the top division by keeping hold of players due to sentimental reasons and the ownership recognise that.

No player has had a starker decline than Paul Mullin. The 30-year-old, on and off the pitch, has been the footballing face of Wrexham.

Signed from Cambridge United in 2021 off the back of a 32-goal League Two campaign, Mullin was an immediate star at the Racecourse Ground. 26 goals in his first season and a staggering 38 in their National League promotion charge made him the most famous non-league player in the world.

The man from Merseyside was able to replicate his form in League Two, scoring 24 in another successful campaign. Off the pitch, Mullin is a regular on the documentary, sharing his son’s story of autism diagnosis and his own campaign to raise awareness for the condition, both of which endeared him to fans and rivals alike.

Such is his popularity, Mullin made a cameo in the superhero movie ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ as Welshpool – a Welsh version of the title character played by Ryan Reynolds.

This season, though, Mullin has had to accept a supporting role. After starting the season behind Marriott and Ollie Palmer, Wrexham signed two more strikers – Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez – in the January transfer window.

All this means that Mullin has not played a league minute for the club since those two strikers signed. More shockingly, he has only made the bench once since January 2nd, a run stretching back 16 games.

He’s goal scoring draught is reflected in the team as a whole. After averaging more than two goals per game in their last two seasons in the National League and promoted from League Two as the third highest scorers in the league, Wrexham have only scored 62 goals in 44 games so far this season.

That is less than relegation battling Peterborough United, and mid-table Barnsley.

Parkinson, the architect of a number of promotions, was known as a pragmatic coach before is time in north Wales and has built a defence-first side, with a back three of Max Cleworth, Eoghan O’Connell, and Lewis Brunt the foundation upon which everything is built.

Off the pitch, Wrexham’s promotion successes are matched by their strong financial position.

At the end of March, the club announced that they had posted record revenues for a League Two club, with a staggering annual turnover of £26.7million. To put that into context, the year before the Hollywood takeover, their revenue in non-league was £1.148m.

Perhaps more relevant is that financial firm Deloitte puts the average revenue for a Championship club at £22m. Wrexham seem ready for their next step up the ladder.

In truth, Wrexham’s potential promotion is no surprise. Their wage bill of £11m per season is extraordinary for a League Two club and has no doubt increased since their second promotion.

Despite those record numbers, Wrexham did still post an annual loss of £2.7m.

The main reason for that the loan that Reynolds and McElhenney were owed by the club which helped fund the purchase of the Racecourse and subsequent stadiums improvements – namely the erection of the temporary Kop Stand – was repaid. That amount stood at £15.02m in total.

If the club are to make it three on the spin and create some English footballing history, we may begin to see the depths of Reynolds and McElhenney’s pockets.

As fellow Welsh clubs Swansea City and Cardiff City know, just being a Championship regular can be an expensive proposition, let alone one that is attempting to reach the promised land without those precious parachute payments.

For Wrexham, that’s a tomorrow’s problem. Today’s predicament is simple: win two more games and achieve immortality.

The Premier League can wait for its Hollywood ending.

---

Sportin Wales’s coverage of Wales’s World Cup qualifying campaign is proudly sponsored by S4C. You can watch all of Wales’s matches this year for free on S4C and S4C Clic.

If you want to read more pieces from Sportin Wales, why not read to our monthly magazine here or subscribe to the magazine and newsletter at https://sportin.wales/subscribe/.

Our podcast is back for the new season and our co-founder Alex Cuthbert is in charge! You can find all the episodes here or the video versions on our YouTube channel.

You can also keep track of our pieces and videos on our socials at @Sportin_Wales on X or Sportin Wales on Instagram and Facebook.