18 June 2023 , 14:16
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Wrexham's Jacob Mendy has made it clear that the Football League new boys are eyeing a second successive promotion.
The Welsh outfit won an epic title race to claim the National League and, funded by the millions of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, are looking to go up once more when they begin life in League Two later this summer. Wrexham's wealth means the club have lofty ambitions.
Their profile is massively on the rise, a new stand is being developed at the Racecourse Ground and the players want to keep their upward trajectory going. Wrexham proved they can cause big teams problems with an impressive FA Cup run and Mendy now wants another promotion on his CV.
He told The Leader : “As a football player, the aim is to play as high as possible. Getting promoted was something which was a must for me and we did it. Hopefully we can get promoted again. One of the reasons why I joined the club was because we have got the same ambition. I want to play high and get promoted again with Wrexham; hopefully win the league but at least get promoted next season. I am looking forward to it.”
Going through the leagues is a difficult task. Crawley remain the last team to go from non-league to League One in the space of two seasons, earning promotion in 2011 and then again 12 months later. Reynolds and McElhenney have made it known that they want to take Wrexham into the top flight eventually, but have put no time demands on the plan.
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The club's CEO has said: " They are aiming for the Premier League. There are no major timescales attached to this but it’s the ultimate ambition.”
Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are preparing for the first year in the football league (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)Wealthy sides have been able to make it out of the National League, but have found the first promotion in the football league particularly elusive. Salford City have been the most high profile of those with the Class of 92 unable to build on their National League play-off success in 2019.
At the time Gary Neville said: “We’ve made some really good decisions which have enabled us to get four promotions in five years. If we carry on making good decisions, accepting the going will get more difficult, we have a good chance of getting out of League Two in the next two or three years. We’ve prepared ourselves to be a Football League club. Our ground is League One compliant."
Since then they've managed just one play-off effort, but they were beaten in the semi-final at Stockport. They've finished 11th, 8th, 10th and 7th in their four seasons amid a huge turnover of players and managers.
Neville has admitted the club want "accelerated promotions into the Championship" and in pursuit of that Graham Alexander, Richie Wellens and Gary Bowyer have all tried and failed despite the latter two both earning promotions from League Two at other clubs.