Wrexham achieved a first in club history—back-to-back promotions—and concluded the League Two season with five victories in a row, securing second place. The Reds have thus earned a postseason celebration as they revel in a spot in League One.
Yet, on Friday, the club released the roster of players they had kept. Therefore, they have also officially announced that eight players would be released this summer when their contracts expire.
Along with Rob Lainton, who has been with the club since 2018, captains Luke Young and Ben Tozer will also be leaving. Also headed for the door are youngsters Owen Cushion and Dan Davies. Defenders Aaron Hayden, Jordan Tunnicliffe and Callum McFadzean will eventually join them.
With his summer 2018 transfer, Young has been with the team longer than any other player. The midfielder was instrumental in the Red Dragons’ historic back-to-back promotions. Center-back Tozer, who joined the club in August of 2021, is also out of contract. His presence was equally important to the team’s success.
James McClean, meanwhile, will be participating in the 2024–25 season with an automatically extended contract. Also, players like Aaron James (defender), Steven Fletcher (forward), and Mark Howard (goalkeeper) have received extension offers.
Wrexham forced to massively cut down squad size
For the third level in England, the Welsh team will be limited to 22 players once again. League One clubs are also capped at 22 players. Those figures, however, do not account for goalkeepers or players whose age was less than 21 when the year began.
As a result, coach Phil Parkinson had to make some tough choices about who to include in his future plans. “People are not completely aware of that rule”, said the Reds’ boss earlier.
“We have got to work towards the 22-man squad and inevitably, the only way we can bring players in is by letting people go. The aim has always been to improve what we have got in each transfer window but also maintaining our key players. That’s what we will be aiming to do this time.
“It is going to be an interesting summer; we have got ideas how we would like to see the squad shape up. We will take our time and hopefully get a squad which can be competitive.”
Will Wrexham use summer budget for reinforcements?
At this point, the club will focus on another promotion and moving just a step away from the Premier League. But despite the club’s ambitions of playing in the top division one day, Parkinson asserted that they would not go over budget this season.
“For all the players we’ve signed, there’s a lot of stories of ones we haven’t signed and got close to. We have a value on players we go for and if it goes above that, we just move away from it.
“I think that’s important because there isn’t endless pot of money. We are working towards a budget; we try and sign the players who offer us value going forward and I feel we’ve done that really well over the last few years.
“We’ve built a squad of players a lot who can carry on the journey with us. We’re not going to pay over the odds for players. We have our own valuation system and we’ll work towards that.”
PHOTOS: IMAGO
