Wrexham are gearing up for life in the Championship and few pundits are predicting relegation for Phil Parkinson’s side.
April saw Wrexham beat Charlton Athletic 3-0 to secure a third straight promotion and a spot in the Championship.
Phil Parkinson has masterminded Wrexham’s brilliant rise and his plans for next season have already begun.
Steven Fletcher is leaving Wrexham this summer, with Parkinson showing no room for sentiment despite the striker’s goals in League One.
Wrexham plan to splash the cash, with Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds no doubt looking to push towards the Premier League.
This promises to be a fiercely competitive Championship season, with those who finished in the bottom half of the 2024-25 campaign no doubt a little worried.
Photo by Kya Banasko/Getty Images
Those who avoided relegation usually look for the promoted sides to struggle at the next level as something of a cushion in the battle to avoid relegation.
Wrexham and Birmingham City winning promotion is a double whammy for those teams, with neither side expected to struggle.
In fact, both Wrexham and Birmingham seem more likely to push for another promotion than to be battling against the drop.
Portsmouth chief executive Andy Cullen has now admitted that those promotions ‘could potentially distort’ the Championship more than usual.
It’s rare to see even one team coming up from League One with such spending power, never mind two at the same time.
Clubs such as Portsmouth would usually expect to be on a similar standing to promoted League One sides, but they simply can’t compete on a financial level with Wrexham and Birmingham.
Cullen has told The News that he is trying to look past the budgets and focus on how Pompey recruit – and, crucially, how they spend their money rather than focusing on how much they spend.
That is the only way Portsmouth can compete with Wrexham and Birmingham, just as they did with other Championship clubs last season.
“The promoted teams is going to be another issue which could potentially distort the league, we understand that,” said Cullen.
“Birmingham would have been really strong financially whichever league they were in last season. They blew League One away in terms of the points they achieved and they spent well.
“But it’s not just about the level of spend you have or the highest budget, it’s the way you recruit and the way you spend that money,” he added.
Wrexham and Portsmouth set for first league meeting in more than 40 years
Wrexham and Pompey are relative strangers in football terms.
The two sides don’t meet very often, and the last meeting came back in 1986 as Pompey beat Wrexham 2-1 in the League Cup.
The last league meeting came way back in 1983 as Pompey again beat Wrexham, winning 2-0 in North Wales.
Pompey’s record, as seen on 11v11, shows four straight victories over Wrexham back in the 1980s.
More than 40 years on from the last league meeting, Wrexham and Portsmouth will finally meet again in the Championship – and Wrexham will be looking to end that Pompey winning run.