Wrexham director Humphrey Ker admits that a third consecutive promotion could yield more negatives than positives for club owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The Hollywood stars have overseen a remarkable change in the club's fortunes since acquiring Wrexham in 2020 with the Red Dragons going from non-league to League One in the space of two years after sealing promotion from League Two earlier this month.
Wrexham last played in the third-tier 19 years ago but are heavily fancied to be in the frame for promotion to the Championship next term given Reynolds and McElhenney's vast resources.
But Ker, the man who originally persuaded McElhenney to buy into a football club, feels a third promotion in as many years would potentially be a case of too much too soon. Speaking to The Independent, Ker said: “I think promotion would be a real push. I think we've often talked about the idea that it takes three transfer windows to really build a squad into what you need to compete in any one division and next season will be one window shorter than that.
“But I think the core of this team is very strong. They’re very strong personalities, good players and they love each other, so that's a great basis to build from. We'll be adding players in the summer and sadly saying goodbye to one or two, which is sort of just the nature of football, and then we'll sort of see where we wind up.
“Inside the building, we're like, ‘look, our objective is get up and stay up, stabilise and build a good platform and go again the following year.’ But stranger things than promotion have happened – we might go through the division again.
“To be honest, that would probably be too fast for us. It wouldn't actually be that good for the club as a whole if we did go all the way through this year because we'd just be going so quickly. Then we’d be trying to catch up with infrastructure and our facilities and everything would be a big, big challenge. So I think something nice and comfortable – upper mid-table, please! Tenth. I'd be very happy with that.”
Join the debate! Can Wrexham win a third consecutive promotion next year? Let us know here.
While Ker has his sights set on a season of consolidation, Wrexham's talisman, Paul Mullin, has reaffirmed his desire to fire the Welsh outfit up into the Premier League.
He told The Guardian at the weekend: “I’m here for the next two years. The fans love me, I love them and everything about the club.
“If another club made an offer and Wrexham accepted it, then I'm in a position where they're telling me to go. It's not something I'm looking for or would wish to happen. It's quite the opposite. I'd love to play in the Premier League for Wrexham. That's the pipe dream.
“It's also the owners' dream to one day become a Premier League club. Who knows whether that takes 10 or 20 years? 50 years or five years? Ryan and Rob are really ambitious and phenomenally successful in all they do. In football they don't want it to be any different. They want to keep going and get us promoted again.”
DON'T SCRAP REPLAYS! Join our petition to keep the magic of the FA Cup alive!
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.