Wrexham’s automatic promotion from League Two is something Phil Parkinson is happy to have avoided.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney left for Wrexham in an attempt to get the team promoted from League Two.
The Reds accomplished this goal in fine fashion, as Phil Parkinson’s team concluded the season with six straight victories, despite stiff competition for the automatic promotion spots.
Ben Tozer and Luke Young are among the eight senior players who will be leaving Wrexham, so preparations for their League One match have already started.
Parkinson is appreciative of the extra time he has to get his team ready since he understands that moving up to the third division would be his team’s hardest challenge. Parkinson was previously manager of Bradford City.
Phil Parkinson feels at ease. Wrexham stayed out of the playoffs.
League Two play-offs began yesterday with a 2-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra by high-fliers Doncaster Rovers.
Although it’s an additional path for teams to gain promotion to League One, Parkinson is happy that Wrexham avoided that situation entirely by finishing second in the fourth division.
Speaking to The Leader, Parkinson said: “The play-offs are obviously something you want to avoid when you are going for promotion.
“If you go to Wembley and win it’s a great occasion but if you go through the play-offs and you don’t win there, when you see teams at the start of next season, they have had less time to recover in the summer and it is really difficult to pick the group up after that.
“If we had been in the play-offs we’d have given it a good go but obviously the aim was to get in the top-three and we managed to achieve that.”
Achieving their aim of finishing in the top three has alleviated any stress of going up through the play-offs, especially after previous heartbreak, while also giving Wrexham extra time to prepare for the new campaign.
Wrexham will want to get business done early this summer
An extra few weeks to plan their transfer business ahead of next season could prove invaluable.
Wrexham were one of the first clubs to announce their release/retained list following promotion, which demonstrates how they’re keen to shift players on to bring talent through the door.
Reynolds has also said he’ll do whatever it takes to win promotion to the Championship, so not only does that highlight huge ambition, it signals to supporters that their Hollywood owners will throw up some surprises in the transfer market.
