Wrexham Announce Summer Plans
Pre-season trips, a playoff update, and the first two profiles of our new competition in The Championship.
With the squad celebrating in Vegas (again), the week had scant Wrexham news, but I’m launching right into previewing our competition next season.
The Wrecap:
League One Playoffs
The first leg of the League One semi-final was essentially a wash, with Leyton Orient and Stockport drawing at two goals apiece while Wycombe and Charlton ended the first leg without a score. The second leg plays out today and tomorrow (1:00pm EST for both matches) with the final held at Wembley on 5/25.
News from the Week:
Wrexham Down Under Tour
The Dragons are flying in a different direction for their pre-season friendlies this year. Instead of embarking on a North American tour, as they have the past two years, Wrexham will head to Australia and New Zealand in July. The pre-season fixtures will be:
7/11 vs Melbourne Victory
7/15 vs Sydney FC
7/19 vs Wellington Phoenix
While I share in many US-based fans’ surprise and disappointment that the Reds won’t be playing stateside, I also understand the reasoning behind it. For one thing, the (troubled) FIFA Club World Cup will be taking place in the States during that time. For another, the new season begins on August 8th and Wrexham want to be back to regular training 10-14 days ahead of time, rather than only allowing a week as they have in the past. Lastly, but probably most importantly…Wrexham have a big following in Australia. The North American fan base is fairly well-established, but bringing the club to as many fans as possible is important, so it’s a smart decision in terms of global exposure. There’s also the small factor that these teams will give Wrexham more of a fight than the MLS and Premier League B-sides we’ve played in the past - just what we need as the boys ramp up for the tough season ahead.
Wrexham Women Head to Japan
Part of the Wrexham Women’s squad will be off to Japan this weekend for the HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens Tournament. It’s the first year the tournament includes a women’s bracket, which will also include bigger English names like Aston Villa, Brighton and Hove Albion, and West Ham United.
Iddenden, Jones Nominated
Wrexham Women stars Abbie Iddenden and Lili Jones have been nominated in the FAW National League Awards for Player and Young Player of the Season, respectively.
You can help them collect some silverware by casting your vote here!
Welcome to Wrexham Returns Tomorrow
Don’t forget: the fourth season of Welcome to Wrexham will debut on FX tomorrow, 5/15, and stream on Hulu and Disney+ on Friday.
Get to Know The Championship
With a new league comes new competition! And although every tier represents a difficulty jump, Wrexham’s promotion to the Championship won’t be anything like Leagues One and Two. Throughout the summer editions of the Wreader I’m going to provide a little profile of each club, two per week, for those readers new to the English Football Pyramid.
Ipswich Town FC
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, England
Founded: 1878
Nickname(s): The Blues, The Tractor Boys
Ownership: - Majority Owner: ORG AZ Secondary Opportunity Fund LP.
- Minority Owner: Ed Sheeran
This Season: Currently 18th in the Premier League
The Premier League season isn’t over yet, but the three relegated teams have long since been decided. Ipswich may not finish in 18th, but they cannot make it to the safety of 17th. The Blues finished second in the Championship in 23/24, earning their first promotion to the Premier League since 2001. In the intervening years, they were almost exclusively in the middle of the Championship table until they fell to the third tier in 2019. Four seasons later, they were promoted from League One with a second-place finish and earned the same final spot the next year, rapidly ascending to the most-watched sports league on the planet.
But all that momentum (and a minority stake from Ed Sheeran) only earned them four wins (as of now) in the top tier…and they have been the best of the three promoted clubs from last season. This is precisely why I feel that no one in the Wrexham camp should have eyes on promotion next season. Ipswich now risks becoming the latest English football Icarus. Sure, they excelled in the Championship…but they were nowhere near ready for the Premier League and a summer firesale could be in store. Of particular transfer interest will be striker Liam Delap, whose twelve goals have made him the 13th-best scorer in the league, despite how poorly his team played. He was far and away their best player with centerback/midfielder Cameron Burgess coming in second. He’s out of contract, however, as is their third-best player, 21-year-old midfielder Julio Enciso.
The result will probably be some heavy summer squad changes and I wouldn’t be shocked if manager Kieran McKenna is shown the door as well. Still, they should retain enough of their key parts to still play well in the Championship. I’d predict a mid-table finish with the possibility of playoffs.
Swansea City AFC
Location: Swansea, Wales
Founded: 1912
Nickname(s): The Swans (Welsh: Yr Elyrch), The Jacks
Ownership: - Andy Coleman, Chairman (Outgoing)
- Luka Modric, Minority owner
This Season: 11th in the Champion
It isn’t unheard of that a football legend would buy a big club (see David Beckham) but it is rather unusual that all-time great Luka Modric would become a minority investor in a club while still actively playing for Real Madrid. The move, which was announced last month, has raised the profile of a club that followed up a seven-year run in the Premier League with a (now) eight-year stay in the Championship. Swansea is a club that should already be on the minds of Wrexham fans as their women’s club is one of the Wrexham Women’s main rivals. Beyond that, Swansea have had a long-standing (but also long-dormant) rivalry with the Reds simply due to geographic proximity - even if it was never as intense as those with Chester or Shrewsbury Town. Nevertheless, they, along with Birmingham City (and possibly Stockport County), will serve as our main rivals next season.
Swansea are coming off their best season in four years. Striker Liam Cullen’s eleven goals made him the 17th-best scorer in the league last season, while left-back Josh Tymon proved to be one of their most creative, chipping in seven assists from the back. Both should return to the squad next season but midfielder Lewis O'Brien, on loan from Nottingham Forest, likely will not. They have a few other players set to hit free agency, but none are currently major players for the squad.
Whereas time will tell if Ipswich is in the midst of an epic fall, the Swans are poised to take flight. They have been inchworming their way up the table in recent years and if they’re able to build on what they already have they could prove to be a real challenge for the top teams in the league. I can see them potentially competing for a playoff spot next season, but I can’t see them finishing in the bottom half.
That’s it for this week! As we inch closer to summer I’ll include a transfer window preview for what should be a transformative couple of months for Parkinson’s squad.
