Wrexham - All Welsh Affair

[zacram]

End of 2025/26 Season

We manage to cap the season off with a final Home win in front of a near capacity crowd, finishing comfortably away from a relegation battle. Slightly frustratingly we finish 4 points behind last seasons tally of 61 and a much worse goal difference.

Hopefully next season we can finish a bit nearer to mid-table.

The annual revenue has actually decreased from last season, which really doesn't bode well.

We did record a new record for average attendance though and getting more bums in seats is always a positive sign.

Here is our best XI of the season and some big improvements is required from certain players next season.

Will Russ continues to be a goalscoring machine for us, finishing the season with 25!

I still don't understand how he is scoring so many goals as his attributes look League One/Two level to me but he is our goal machine up front! He now has 107 goals in 211 appearances for the club.

The board actually approached me about upgrading the Youth Set up and I also got them to agree to upgrade the training facilities.

We really don't have much money in the bank but it's vital to grow our reputation as attracting the top quality Welsh players is impossible at the minute.

Again we have very little finances to work with for next season, so improvements are looking unlikely....

A little boost to our reputation, but we are still the lowest ranked Championship side in the League and below a number of League One sides.

We are also the best team in Wales currently as both Cardiff and Swansea are in League One (although still have a greater reputation)

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[Hampus Silverholt]

Crazy how well you're doing considering the stature of the club and players at your disposal. Are there any decent Welsh prospects at big Premier League clubs or even at some Welsh ones? TNS always produce 1 or 2 decent regens on saves I've done before

 

[zacram]

Crazy how well you're doing considering the stature of the club and players at your disposal. Are there any decent Welsh prospects at big Premier League clubs or even at some Welsh ones? TNS always produce 1 or 2 decent regens on saves I've done before

I know, I was amazed that we reached the Championship so quickly and then manage to survive. Although it feels like i'm treading water now, as our club reputation remains low and still sort of struggling financially. Could be a while before we are challenging for the Premiership.

City have produced some really decent Welsh prospects but even trying to buy them as teenagers they are asking for £7M+, I guess because they are HG talents. I have a scout fixed in Wales looking for prospects but haven't found anything of note just yet.

 

[zacram]

RECORD TRANSFER


Unfortunately it's a transfer out rather than a transfer in...

Our youth product, Daniel Davies had a release clause in his contract for £4.6M which Crystal Palace decided to activate and he joins the Premiership side in a club record deal.

Davies came through our youth academy a few years ago and has been a first team regular in the last couple of seasons on the right wing. Having said that he hasn't really had a great end product with only 12 goals and 10 assists across 4 seasons. So £4.6M is a pretty decent price I'd say.

We now have money in the bank after we had previously spent most of it on upgrading our training facilities.

The big question is can we land a big signing this season?

We have immediately been able to replace Davies with another young winger in David Garnett, who joins us on loan from Burnley. Whilst he not officially our player he looks like an upgrade on Davies and have high hopes for him this season.

In other news we have a couple of International call ups to Wales World Cup squad.

Tom King managed to get his first Cap at the age of 31, which was well deserved considering his club form for us last season.

Holland managed to beat Portugal in the World Cup Final

France thrashed Wales in the Third Round, but Laudrup is doing a good job with the Welsh side so doubt I'll get another shot at the job for a little while yet.

 

[zacram]

Start of 2026/27 Season

It looks set to be another familiar season for us in the Championship, as we start are 3rd season in the division.

Our home form is very strong and we probably seem good enough to avoid the drop but I doubt we are going to be able to surpass our top points tally of 61 this season....Getting out of the Championship is going to prove the death of me!

For a 3rd straight year we are bookies favourites to finish bottom, despite have 2 solid season in the Championship already!

We have overtaken someone in Sponsorship Income and now sit above Bristol Rovers!

However, we still remain routed firmly to the bottom of wage expenditure. We are working on next to nothing in this division and have barely seen any progress in 3 seasons which is very frustrating.

With very few players at our disposal on the transfer market I decided to bring Aaron Ramsey in on loan. He may be 35 years old, but has 114 International Caps and his technical and mental attributes are still far greater than everyone in our squad.

I wanted him last year but Sunderland offered him a contract that we couldn't match and now we are just paying 5% of his wage (with a little transfer money). Although my justification is that a player of his calibre will attract more attention to the club and our reputation.

So here is the latest squad for this season at the end of the transfer window.

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[zacram]

New Internationals

Our Championship struggle continue as we as we record just the one win in 7 games. We are generally competing pretty well in each game and proving difficult to beat but also struggling to find the all important game winner or hold a slender lead to the final whistle.

Still some positives for sure, but I think we can do better.

I meant to post this last time, but we got knocked out in the EFL Cup in the Second Round.

Once again we get drawn a Premier League side early on and despite taking a 2 goal lead at Bramall Lane we ultimately fell to the cruelty of the shootout.

Oli Ewing made his Welsh debut. He is in his 3rd season with us after he was released by Leicester.

Callum Doyle also made his Welsh debut. A player who was released by Manchester City 5 seasons ago and has been an ever present figure in central defence from way back in our League Two days.

The new training facilities have been completed and hopefully boost our reputation at the end of the season (should we not get relegated).

The Youth Level is also currently been improved and the board have agreed to invest in the Youth Facilities at the end of the season.

Despite results not being the best, I still managed to wangle myself a new deal and show my commitment to Wrexham.

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[zacram]

Tactical Masterclass?

We have 3 really good CBs in this squad and a couple of decent backups so have been determined to crack a formation and think i've finally found it! I haven't fully abandoned the 4-2-3-1 but this formation has been working wonders for us in the past couple of month as you can see from the results below.

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7 wins in 10 games has elevated us from relegation candidates to promotion hopefuls within the space of a couple of months. Our season has been completely transformed.

I still think realistically playoffs are still going to be out of our reach this season but surely we will beat our best points tally of 61 this season.

The transfer window is now open, but any sort of dealings is looking unlikely...


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[zacram]

Back to Reality

Unfortunately I'm not quite the tactical genius I originally thought and it's back to reality in the Championship for us. Fortunately our previous good run of results have meant that we have avoided a relegation battle and have already been confirmed of our survival with 9 games to spare.

We are also 9 points off our record points tally so am hopeful that we will have our most successful season to date .

We got another horrible FA Cup 3rd Round draw but somehow managed to score a late equaliser as we hosted Liverpool! Garnett scored in the 92nd minute to earn us a return tie at Anfield.

Unsurprisingly Liverpool overpowered us at Anfield. We were still in the game before Ewing got sent off in the 63rd minute and then they went on to score a couple of goals - With 11 men could we have held on?

 

[zacram]

Record League Finish


Now the headline may be a bit deceptive as we stumble our way to the end of the season in rather dire form, recording just 5 wins since the turn of the New Year.

However, despite falling 1 point short of our record points tally we did in fact a record high position of 12th, which is a pretty big accomplishment to achieve. Obviously our end of season form requires some serious work but the club continues to grow.

It was another season with £0 in competition Prize Money, but we did see some generate some big revenue in gate receipts from our clash with Liverpool.

Sponsorship has more than doubled since last season which is massive for us as we look to fund mass squad improvements.

Here is a look at our best XI

We managed to secure 3 top youth prospects this year through the academy and high hopes that they can break into our starting XI in a few years time.

Here is a look at the above players attributes.

The Youth Set Up has been improved to a Category 2 which is another big step in our long term future.

A decent budget to work with, most of which is carried over from our sale of Daniel Davies last season and the real issue is attracting top players and meeting their wage demands.

In other news.....

Laudrup resigns to take over at Osasuna, leaving the Welsh Job open once again.

Application has been submitted and am supposedly a leading candidate for the job....

 

[MidKnightDreary]

It's time!

 

[zacram]

Having just completed my 7th season as a manager, featuring 3 promotions, I have been appointed as Wales Manger!

I had hoped we would be competing in the Premiership with Wrexham by the time I landed this job, but that challenge seems to have really stagnated so am excited to take on the additional challenge of the National Side.

I'm definitely a step-down in experience from the previous Welsh managers, but perhaps the switch back to a Homegrown manager could be the key for success.

I take over the job with my first games in just a couple of days and here is the squad that was selected by my predecessor. Some decent players at my disposal but the squad is a bit thin outside of the starting XI.

Here are the 3 best Welsh players according to the assistant manager.

With such a short time to work with the players, I was happy to get the victory anyway possible. An away game against Israel had the potential to be a banana skin in our pursuit of Euro 2028 qualification so is a big 3 points to come away with.

We were much more dominant in the return fixture, scoring 3 goals in the space of 10 minutes in my debut in the home dugout. They barely had any attempts, but is a little concerning that they managed to convert 2 of the 4 shots they had against us.

Our back to back victories leave us top of our qualifying group after we had previously beaten Gibraltar earlier in the year. Austria are undoubtably going to be the real challenge, but we are actually ranked higher than them in the World Rankings. We are 25th and they are 39th, so maybe we are favourites.

Here is a look at the World Rankings. Laudrup did a great job of getting Wales back into the upper tiers and we are also in the Nations League A for when that competition resumes, so up against the big boys.

 

[Nomadic]

Congrats on the Wales job - Excited to see how far you can take them!

Also really hoping this is the year you can really kick on in the Championship and push towards top half of the table.

 

[zacram]

More Record Transfer Deals


Firstly I thought I'd quickly show an update on our club reputation, which continues to slowly creep up, but we are still quite far off the pace of the majority of Championship sides.

We also recorded a new average attendance record, although still don't have the full capacity of the stadium at our disposal to fill.

Having not spent any money on upgrading facilities this season, we still had a decent transfer budget to utilise. Zac Wallis is a player I've been monitoring for a couple of seasons and with Cardiff resound to League One life, they finally lowered the asking price to something I deemed reasonable, so forked out a record £1.4M to bring him in.

Not long after we secured our record transfer signing, Everton came swooping in for another of our academy products, Aled Simms. He had a £8.5M release clause in his contract which Everton activated. I had hoped to break him into the first team this season following a good loan spell last season but unfortunately that is no longer an option.

Still £8.5M is a huge sum of money for a club of our stature.

Here are our transfers this season.... not alot of activity on the inbound side of things.

Here is this seasons squad following the end of the transfer window. We have also agreed a transfer fee for David Garnett who is currently on loan from Burnley, but will be a permanent signing come January.

A number of academy products such as Mason Oakley, Louis Prosser, Matthew Page and Kai Nash are going to be in and around the first team this season as we fail to bring many improvements into the squad.

It's been another strong start to the season for us as we begin our 4th season in the Championship. We are starting to look a more settled side I feel and have looked more solid defensively and will agin be looking to top our 61 points tally.

Finally we are no longer predicted to finish bottom!

We are still predicted a relegation spot but still an improvement.

Another disappointing Cup campaign for us as we once again get knocked out of the EFL Cup in the early stages. We are continually unlucky with the draws and am hoping we can get a couple of easy FA Cup ties for a change this season.

We still have the smallest wage budget in the Championship, spending considerably less than the majority of sides around us. So definitely punching well above our weight.

Club Finances are looking very healthy though after our the sale of Simms.....So potentially a big budget to come next season??

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[zacram]

Euro 2028 Qualifying


The aways fixture against Austria was always going to be the most challenging game in our qualification bid.

After they scored 2 quick-fire corners midway through the second half, things were starting to look rather bleak. That was until Brooks managed to score in the 82nd minute to claw one back, before Wilson converted from the penalty spot in stoppage time to secure a hard fought draw on the road. It will likely all come down to the return fixture now.

We followed up the draw in Austria with a very comfortable victory over Luxembourg back in Wales.

In the next set of International fixtures we travelled to Gibraltar, where we unsurprisingly demolished them. They are complete minnows in International football and we really should have scored more goals than we did. I lost count of the number of times we hit the woodwork.

So with just 2 games left to play we sit 2 points clear at the top of the table as Austria could only manage a draw away to Luxembourg.

With an away fixture against Luxembourg and a home fixture against Austria to come, we are in control of our own destiny.

We did also play a friendly against a very strong USA side who are currently 9th in the World Rankings. They have some very talented players so was always going to be a big test for us. They certainly exposed us defensively but some positives were definitely on show.

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[zacram]

Strong Start to the Season


Having only signed one player this season I was expecting it to be a very similar story of us floundering around the lower half of the table.

However, with 15 games gone in the season, we are sitting 5th - 4 points clear in the playoff positions!

Victories over Swansea, Palace and Blackburn have been particular highlights. Norwich did bring us back to reality but we've bounced back and been looking in terrific form at the start of the season.

The Youth facility upgrade has been in process for a long time and has finally been completed. We now have a very healthy looking setup at the club and some really solid foundations for the future.

I took advantage of our good form to leverage myself a new contract at Wrexham to solidify my job security and reiterate my commitment to the club.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Things slowly starting to come together now, hope the Wales job keeps you invested for a few more years as I don't think the Premier League is far away!

 

[Jacksono69]

I’m loving this save as a usual lurker! It’s enjoyable to see this nation approach!

 

[zacram]

Things slowly starting to come together now, hope the Wales job keeps you invested for a few more years as I don't think the Premier League is far away!

Yes, the Wales job has added an extra dimension to the save which is much needed as the save was starting to stagnate a bit.

However, this might be a breakthrough year a Wrexham to boost our reputation and have money in the bank to fund some future deals.

I’m loving this save as a usual lurker! It’s enjoyable to see this nation approach!

Thanks mate, glad you're enjoying it!

 

[zacram]

Euro 2028 Qualification?


We were just minutes away from securing top spot in our group and a place at Euro 2028, before Austria inflicted some revenge with a late equaliser in the 89th minute. We bossed the game and really should have put it to bed but we didn't and now have a little bit of additional pressure for the trip to Luxembourg.

Well this turned out to be quite an entertaining game....

After conceding an early goal we stormed into a 4-1 lead and looked to be cruising our way to victory. Unfortunately we then seemed to completely forget how to defend and conceded a further 3 goals!

A draw would actually have been enough for us to secure top spot but Matondo managed to find us a winner in the 88th minute to end an enthralling game of football.​

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So we managed to clinch top spot and secure a place in Euro 2028.

Bring on next summer!

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[DeDruif]

I just wanted a 10 minute break from work. Ended up being distracted for more then a hour and read the whole post. Cheers mate! Great job!