'A million miles away!' - Wrexham transfer guru dashes Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney's dreams of signing Jamie Vardy & Kevin De Bruyne with 'unlimited budget' warning

The Red Dragons, with ambitious Hollywood co-owners calling the shots, are expected to be busy in the summer window as they prepare for life in the Championship. There is talk of Premier League pedigree arriving in North Wales.

Many of the household names that Wrexham are being linked with find themselves in the free agent pool, but Les Reed says that does not make deals any easier - or cheaper. He has told The i Paper: "Let’s take Jamie Vardy. Everyone thinks he’s out of contract, there’s no transfer fee, Wrexham could do that. You’re talking about players who are on £140,000-a-week. We are a million miles away from that because we don’t get Premier League revenues or broadcasting money.

"I think we were linked with Kevin De Bruyne at one stage! There is a certain level of Premier League player who, if they are on £100k to 150k-a-week, are still going to get close to that if they move to the MLS or Saudi Arabia than if they go to Wrexham."

Wrexham intend to be competitive, though, with Reed adding on the funds available to manager Phil Parkinson: "We will have a decent budget. Everyone externally thinks we’ve got an unlimited budget because of our owners, but that’s not true. We’ll have a good budget simply because we’ve got very good revenues.

"That’s the benefit of the owners. It’s not their deep pockets, it’s their ability to generate higher revenues, which enables us to spend within the regulations and offer decent salaries."

Wrexham are now one step away from reaching the Premier League, with the plan being to continue a historic run of promotions. Reed said: "We are definitely aiming high; we mustn’t lose that aspiration and momentum.

"We’re not by any means predicting that we’re going to go [straight] to the Premier League, but we don’t just want to go ‘okay, the journey is over, we’re in the Championship, let’s stabilise and consolidate’.

"We need to get through this window with some good recruitment and establish ourselves, not as a survivor, but as a challenger, i.e. in a good season, could we get into the play-offs? We would love to break that record [of four straight promotions] and, given the circumstances, we’ll give it our best shot."

Comings and goings aplenty are expected at SToK Racecourse over the coming weeks, with every dramatic moment being caught on camera for the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary series - which has seen a fifth season confirmed for 2025-26.