Wrexham's Heartbreaking Near-Miss in Championship Playoffs
The tears at the Racecourse told the story long before the table did.
Wrexham, the club dragged from non-league obscurity into global consciousness by Hollywood glare and relentless ambition, fell one step short of the Championship playoffs on the final day. A 2-2 draw at home to Middlesbrough wasn’t enough; Hull City’s 2-1 win over Norwich City nudged Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s club down to seventh and out of the promotion shootout.
For a few fleeting minutes, it looked like the scriptwriters might still be on their side. An Australian twist, even. Mohamed Toure put Norwich ahead at Hull, a goal that would have kept Wrexham in sixth. At the Racecourse, belief swelled.
Then the afternoon turned.
Hull roared back to win, Middlesbrough dug in, and an Australian on the other side of the story – Riley McGree – helped shut the door on Wrexham’s playoff hopes. The final whistle brought a wash of emotion. This was not just another missed opportunity; it was the first hard collision with the ceiling of the English pyramid.
Three promotions in three seasons had made it all look easy. From the fifth tier to the Championship in five years. From a creaking non-league ground to a club being valued at US$475m. From anonymity to a global fanbase via “Welcome to Wrexham”. The rise has been breathtaking.
It still hurt.
“I am completely gutted by today’s result but incredibly proud of our season,” Reynolds wrote afterwards. “We’ve come a long way in five years and this was the best result in our 150+ year history. More to do. But for now, we have so much to be proud of, Reds.”
He’s right on the history. Wrexham have not operated this high up the ladder for 43 years. Yet the Championship is unforgiving. It doesn’t care for romance, celebrity or docu-series arcs. It exposes weaknesses, stretches squads, and punishes even brief lapses over a 46-game slog.
The easy part is over
Troy Deeney knows both sides of the divide. He fired Watford into the Premier League in 2015, then lived the pain of relegation back to the Championship in 2020. Watching Wrexham from the outside, he sees the next phase as the most revealing.
“I actually think this is going to be the real making to see how they are as owners,” he said on Paramount+. “Because everything has been, not smooth, but simple. Throw a load of money at it, buy players from the league above, go up, get promoted.”
That model got them here. It won’t, on its own, get them through the final door.
Off the pitch, Reynolds and McElhenney are ticking every commercial box. A new grandstand at the Racecourse will open next season, boosting gate receipts. The documentary has been extended for three more seasons, guaranteeing visibility and revenue. Their decision to sell shares at that US$475m valuation, after buying the club for just US$2m in 2021, underlines how quickly Wrexham have become a serious business.
Serious money brings serious stakes. The owners have never hidden their goal: the Premier League. People laughed when they said it at that first press conference. Nobody is laughing now.
The Times’ chief football correspondent Martin Samuel believes their ascent to the top flight is not just plausible, but inevitable. He also delivered a blunt verdict on this season’s near-miss.
“All they needed to do was beat Middlesborough at home. I know Middlesborough are a good team, but if they beat Middlesborough, they’re up,” he told Sky Sports. “If you can’t beat Middlesborough at home for your life, you’re probably not ready for the Premier League.
“So, maybe another year in the Championship is what Wrexham need. They’re gonna be contenders next year again. I’m absolutely certain of that.”
He pointed to the weight behind the club: a country’s backing, a booming American fanbase, a profile few Championship rivals can match. “I would say, inevitably, Wrexham will end up in the Premier League,” he said.
Inevitability, though, demands precision. This summer, they cannot afford many wrong calls.
Big decisions, bigger questions
Next season’s Championship will expand its playoffs from four teams to six, opening the door to clubs finishing as low as eighth. That should, in theory, make it easier to reach the “cut-throat end of the season”. The reality doesn’t change: only three clubs go up.
Deeney believes Wrexham must interrogate everything.
Is Phil Parkinson, the architect of their climb from the fifth tier, still the man to take them that last step? Is the current recruitment strategy enough for a division where mistakes get punished weekly, not occasionally? Is the style of play – bold, attacking, often chaotic – suited to a league where control is currency?
Defensively, the questions are loudest. Callum Doyle arrived from Manchester City last summer on a four-year deal, having impressed on loan at Norwich, Leicester, Coventry and Sunderland. He ended up in the Championship team of the season. On paper, that’s a major success.
Deeney isn’t convinced the core problem was solved.
“They’ve got into so many shootouts this year because they’ve been coming from behind,” he said. “They’ve spent £50 million. They spent £10 million on Doyle, centre back. I wouldn’t say there’s a £10 million player there that’s organising that backline saying, ‘right, we‘re defensively solid’.
“They get into shootouts, but now, the question to start asking: is this manager, who I think is fantastic, is he the guy to get us promoted? How much more did we need to spend on players now? Is this the right style to get us promoted? All of these questions start to raise their head now.”
Nigel Reo-Coker expects a full audit.
“There’ll be a re-evaluation of everything,” the former West Ham and Aston Villa midfielder said. “They have ambition of getting to the Premier League. That is the main goal, whatsoever. Then you start to look around. You start to think who can get us in there. There will be questions of the manager.
“He’ll know he’s under pressure. He was supposed to get them to the Premier League.”
Reo-Coker floated one name without making a prediction: Scott Parker, now out of work after leaving Burnley, a coach with a track record of promotion. If Wrexham decide Parkinson has taken them as far as he can, the pool of candidates will be strong. The decision will define the next chapter.
Building a squad with an edge
The squad will change again. It has to.
Doyle, for all the debate around his fee and impact, may not even be there. Manchester City inserted a buy-back clause when they sold the 22-year-old. With John Stones leaving and Nathan Ake linked with a move, City could easily bring him back to bolster their depth.
“He’s a really quality player. I think he’s got everything,” said his defensive partner, Scotland international Dom Hyam. “He’s technically so calm. He’s a beast as well, and he’s young. I think that’ll unfortunately attract some big clubs. It’s obviously out of our hands, but he’s got a big future.”
Up front, Josh Windass has carried a huge load. Signed on a free from Sheffield Wednesday, he finished as Wrexham’s top scorer with 17 in all competitions and produced seven goals in the final eight league matches to almost drag them into the playoffs on his own. He was rightly named player of the season.
Former Wrexham player and manager Brian Flynn believes Windass and others need more help, not a revolution.
“I think they need at least three or four players. Is that a major overhaul? I don’t think so,” he told BBC Radio Wales Sport. “He does like employing strikers, that’s for certain, Phil does do that.
“In all other areas of the pitch, I think they’re well served. They’ve got players like [Dom] Hyam, he’s been excellent all season. He’s been a really good signing. Players like Ollie Rathbone have come up with important goals, Josh Windass is a Championship player, so they will definitely come back stronger and better next season, without a shadow of a doubt.”
Stronger, and harder. That’s the demand.
On reflection, Wrexham did not miss the playoffs because they couldn’t live with the best. They beat champions Coventry at home. They outplayed Ipswich Town, another promoted side. In the FA Cup, they took Chelsea to extra time and toppled Nottingham Forest.
They missed out because they dropped too many points to weaker teams. They drew at home with Leicester City after conceding a 90th-minute equaliser. They failed to beat Sheffield Wednesday at the Racecourse, a side that won just two of 46 league games all season. Those are the afternoons that haunt you in May.
Walking the financial tightrope
Leicester offer the starkest warning. Ten years ago, they were Premier League champions, the 5000-to-1 miracle under Claudio Ranieri. Next season, they will play in League One after a second straight relegation, undone by financial missteps and a spiral that gathered pace too quickly to stop.
Sports finance expert Dr Rob Wilson believes Wrexham are already close to a dangerous edge.
“If a club misses out on the play-offs, that’s a £15 million hit on revenue because of the associated ticket and commercial revenue that’s on offer by making it through those additional games,” he told goal.com.
“If they miss out on the play-offs and don’t get promoted to the Premier League, then we are talking about missing out on an opportunity worth £120 million and that is pretty significant. That’s particularly true for Wrexham given the amount of money they are spending and the spending that they have undertaken over the last couple of years. They’ve also got plans for a new training ground and an expansion to their stadium so it gets really, really tricky.”
The numbers are stark. The last published accounts, from League One, showed turnover at around £33m, wages over £20m and a loss of roughly £15m – up from £2.7m the year before. Wrexham are already spending beyond their means, banking on climbing higher.
“Average revenues in the Championship for Wrexham, given all of their extra activity that they do, are probably going to be closer to £50 million but they have obviously brought in additional players as well,” Wilson added.
The business case, like the football project, assumes progress. The margin for error is slim.
The next act
There will be no league trips to Old Trafford, Anfield, the Emirates or the Etihad next season. Unless the FA Cup delivers another improbable run, those stages will have to wait. A visit to Tottenham is possible, but the promised land remains out of reach for now.
Under Reynolds and McElhenney, Wrexham’s story has been one of relentless ascent, of a small Welsh club punching through barrier after barrier. The coming years could bring something different: repeat heartbreak, near-misses, the grind of a division often called the toughest league in the world.
The Championship has a habit of trapping clubs in a loop of almost. Almost ready. Almost good enough. Almost there.
Wrexham have built momentum, money, and a global audience. The cameras are rolling for at least three more seasons. The question now is simple, and brutal.
Can they turn a Hollywood fairytale into a sustainable Premier League reality before the script starts to fray?
