Wrexham’s Hollywood owners have splashed the cash to lure the best players to North Wales, and it has delivered results after they achieved a third successive promotion
Wrexham have secured a historic third successive promotion and will play in the Championship for the first time in 43 years after a 3-0 victory over Charlton Athletic. The Red Dragons’ meteoric rise up the divisions has been powered by the financial might of Hollywood A-listers Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and their ambition shows no signs of slowing after restating their goal of taking the club all the way to the Premier League.
Last year, the two actors welcomed new minority investors to help them realise their lofty aims. The arrival of the Allyn family, who owned global medical device firm Welch Allyn before it was sold for $2billion (£1.5bn) in 2015, has allowed them to accelerate their plans for growth both on and off the pitch.
During January, manager Phil Parkinson spent big to sign strikers Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez from Reading and Burnley respectively, whilst wing-back Ryan Longman joined from Hull City. Work is also due to start imminently on a new 5,500-seat Kop stand following the end of the League One season.
As their riches pile up, it’s left many people to wonder how much Wrexham’s star players are paid compared to their rivals. The club’s latest accounts, which cover the 2023/24 season when the team gained automatic promotion from League Two, reveal a staggering wage bill of £11m – up from £6.9m in 2022/23.
While that figure also includes non-playing staff, the bulk is likely to be taken up by the men’s first team. That figure was well above any other side in the fourth tier and will have increased even further this campaign.
According to football industry data website Capology.com, Wrexham had the third-highest payroll in League One this term. Total players’ salaries are estimated at a gross amount £205,200 per week or £10.67m per year.
For context, Birmingham City, who are confirmed as champions, reportedly spent £308,000 weekly or £16.01m annually. Just below them, Huddersfield, who are currently in 10th position in the table, have forked out £218,669 per week and £11.37m per year.
At the bottom end of the scale, Peterborough’s squad are reported to take home a much lower collective weekly salary of £63,812 or £3.31m annually. Meanwhile, the figures for newly-relegated Shrewsbury stand at £70,223 and £3.65m respectively.
Wrexham’s current payroll would place them close to the bottom of the Championship, highlighting the scale of spending required to be competitive in the second tier. Ex-Premier League forward Jay Rodriguez is understood to be the Welsh side’s current highest-earning player on approximately £15,000 per week.
Club director Humphrey Ker highlighted projections earlier this year that show Wrexham will need to quadruple their wage bill at the next level. If such plans were to be implemented then it would fire them right up the top in financial terms.
By way of comparison, first-placed Burnley spent £567,500 per week or £29.51m on salaries this season, while second-placed Leeds’ wage bill stood at £707,500 weekly and £36.79m annually. Ker also revealed the response of Reynolds and McElhenney to news of the required increase was very telling.
Speaking back in March, he said: “This was something that was discussed very early on this season in terms of what it would likely end up costing. Everybody is very aware of what would be required, which is good.
“When we had that Zoom, I watched like a hawk and I was looking at Rob and Ryan’s boxes to see what their faces do when these kinds of sums come up. They both looked very calm, which was good.”
Wrexham have broken their transfer record on several occasions in recent years, with the club forking out £2m to lure Smith from Reading in January. Before that, the most they had spent was around £590,000 to sign striker Mo Faal from West Brom last summer.
They will need to push the boat out even further to acquire top talents at Championship level. An extra £8m from TV revenue will make its way to the club next season, providing a helping hand in that regard.
With promotion now achieved, talk has turned to who Wrexham could sign during the summer transfer window, with big names like Leicester striker Jamie Vardy already linked. However, Parkinson has made clear his focus will be on bringing the right character of player to the Racecourse, rather than aiming for superstars.
He said: “I think that a lot of tough decisions will be made this summer, in terms of who we bring in and how we add to this fantastic squad of lads we’ve got, but let’s see if we can build a squad to compete at that level.
“I think it’s interesting because the jump in salaries is incredible, mind-blowing. Even coming up to this level [League One], the jump to get players of Championship quality is expensive but obviously with the next level, I don’t think people outside football quite realise.
“They think players in League One must be multi-millionaires, but the drop-off from what people read about Premier League players when they come down, is huge.
“That is a challenge, but what we’ve always tried to do is make sure the culture in the club is right and I think that’s key – no superstars, no egos in the dressing room and we’ve got to try and get that balance right again. You always need extra quality when you go up a level to make sure the right people come into the building.”
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