Wrexham told first £1m signing ‘is coming’ as ex-manager tips Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney to poach top young talent from Premier League giants including Liverpool and Arsenal

James McClean recently revealed that summer signing Mo Faal has become the Red Dragons’ record signing, with a £590,000 fee changing hands when luring the 21-year-old striker away from West Brom. More big money is expected to be spent in future windows, as Wrexham move towards splashing out a seven-figure sum.

Quizzed on whether such a deal is fast approaching, former Red Dragons boss Dean Saunders – speaking in association with 888sport – told GOAL: "It sounds easy – you’ve got a million quid, let’s get a million-pound striker. But what striker worth a million quid wants to play lower down the leagues? If you are worth a million quid in the market, you can play for a lot of big clubs in a big league. It’s hard to persuade players to come down.

"Say it’s a striker, he knows that if he doesn’t score at that level, he could end up losing all of the stature he has got to. You try to keep playing – I know I did – at the highest level you can because you are playing with better players and you get better service. I’m sure it’s coming."

Saunders added on how Wrexham may go about smashing another transfer record in North Wales: "It’s a matter of time before they go ‘right, come on, how much is it going to take to get him out of there?’ They might get someone out of Arsenal’s U21 team, or Liverpool’s U21 team. How much is it going to cost to buy him? But it’s coming.

"I always thought we could get to the Championship and then get 15-20,000. I think now they will get 30,000 and whether they can put the money in for another level – you have got players on £150,000 a week playing against you in the next league up – I don’t know."

Wrexham have come a long way since Saunders filled their dugout between 2008 and 2011, with the ex-Wales international adding on the club’s meteoric rise under Hollywood co-owners: "It’s amazing really. Myself, I was sort of in charge of everything, so I understood how the finances work at the club. I watched the owner come in and write cheques for the tax bill for £180,000. He was paying bills for the place, bills for the grass. My wage budget was £750,000. We did alright. Then, it allowed me to sign a couple of strikers on £1,200 a week, that was the biggest wages. I thought ‘if I could get my playing budget up to £2 million’ – which Fleetwood had, as they had Jamie Vardy playing for them – then you can just sign the best strikers in the league.

"League One strikers will not come and play in the Conference, no matter how much you offer them. They think they are better than that, so even if you have got money it is still difficult to get players to come down and play. But obviously they got [Paul] Mullin to come down and play for them – he finished top scorer in the league above – and he’s done brilliantly for them.

"The lads that have taken over, the two film stars – that I thought was a joke when someone mentioned it to me and thought ‘I’ll believe that when I see it’, and I’ve seen it – everything they said they were going to do, they have done. The town is now a tourist attraction. Wrexham needed some money to lift the place. These two lads have come in and done wonders for the town. The team have gone from strength to strength."

Saunders went on to say: "I don’t know what the playing budget is now, probably in the Conference it was £3 million and went up to £4 million. Now they have got to a point where the next league up, you are competing with Premier League budgets – three teams that have come down, the teams that haven’t gone back up. But what you have got in your favour is the spirit and the winning formula that the manager has put in place. That can carry you. When you go into games with that sort of mentality, you can achieve all sorts. Amazing story and I’m sure they will be making films about it for years to come."

After enjoying back-to-back promotions, Wrexham are now riding high in League One. Phil Parkinson has them sat third in the table, within touching distance of the automatic promotion spots, while Reynolds and McElhenney have never shied away from the fact that they want to deliver Premier League football at some point in the not too distant future.