How much will Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney spend? Wrexham ‘budget’ admission as Phil Parkinson begins to draw up Championship transfer plans

The Red Dragons have made history in 2024-25 by becoming the first EFL club to secure three successive promotions. A meteoric rise has carried the Welsh club out of the National League and into the second tier of English football.

Everybody at SToK Racecourse is aware of the challenges that lie ahead, in a bid to one day reach the Premier League, and more movement is expected over the summer. With a top-two finish in League One wrapped up, Phil Parkinson can get into recruitment mode.

Wrexham’s manager has said: “We're always planning. You've got to because of the speed at which we've evolved as a club. Some great players and some great characters have left us but my job is to keep improving the squad all the time, during the season as well.

“Planning is ongoing and it's always difficult when you don't know what division you're in but the thing about the play-offs, if you end up going through to the play-off final and win or lose, it takes up a lot of chunk of that time. Now we've got a great opportunity to sit back and make good decisions going forward.”

It remains to be seen how much money Hollywood co-owners Reynolds and McElhenney will make available. Parkinson added on transfer talks: “We need to evaluate in terms of the budget and the level of wages players are going to demand, and balancing that quality with the culture and what we've built here.

“The great thing about going up now automatically is we've got a long time now to reflect on this and sit down with the owners, which we will do.”

Reynolds and McElhenney have spent big to this point, breaking Wrexham’s transfer record on a number of occasions, and will continue to dig as deep as possible - with the door also being left open for further investors to join them in the most ambitious of projects.