28 May 2024 , 10:41
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Rob McElhenney has shared that Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson and the players already fancy their chances of challenging for promotion again next season.
Wrexham have achieved successive promotions over the last two campaigns to rise from the National League into League One. After winning the fifth-tier title with a record 111 points, the Welsh club backed that up by finishing second to Stockport County in League Two at the first time of asking.
Ahead of their first season in the third tier for two decades, they are among the favourites for promotion again and tipped to at least make the play-offs. That is despite no club in history achieving three consecutive promotions within the top five levels on the English football pyramid.
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Even with the weight of history against them, Wrexham players and staff are aiming high, according to McElhenney. "Not that it wasn’t real before, but now it gets really real," the club's co-owner told S4C.
"League One is a very competitive division. There are so many great clubs that have come down from the Championship into League One, and it’s going to be a lot tougher than it was past year.
"But I was just with Phil [Parkinson] and then just with the boys in [Las] Vegas, and they seem to think we have a shot at being there are at the top again.” Club captain Ben Tozer also refused to rule out a third straight promotion soon after achieving their second.
Rob McElhenney is being told by Wrexham players and staff that they are optimistic about challenging towards to top of League One next season (CHRIS JACKSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)"I don't see why the club can't [go up again]," he told talkSPORT, "but at the same time, let's just enjoy this one while it's here and take the next one as it comes." Weeks after those comments, the club confirmed that Tozer was one of eight out-of-contract players not offered new deals.
First-team captain Luke Young, Aaron Hayden, Callum McFadzean, Dan Davies, Jordan Tunnicliffe, Owen Cushion, Rob Lainton and Scott Butler were the other seven players released by the club. Former goalkeeper Ben Foster is another backing his former club to continue their success next season.
The ex-England international spent five months with Wrexham at the end of their National League-winning season and the start of the last campaign in League Two.
Foster still follows the club and is bullish about their chances in the third tier. "I would say the odds on Wrexham doing it are not bad at all," he said on Fozcast. "I am going to say they are going to do it.
"I think what they have got in that team anyway is League One level, and if you can add a little bit more quality, a bit more experience, I think they are going to be there or thereabouts again come the end of the season."
"They will be thinking realistically: 'We want to be knocking on the doors of at least the play-offs'."