Wrexham will grace the Championship next year after clinching a historic third successive promotion – but their top summer transfer target, Jamie Vardy, will not be joining them.
The Dragons sealed promotion from League One in style on Saturday with a thumping 3-0 win over fourth-placed Charlton Athletic. The club’s famous co-owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, were in the stands – alongside the former’s wife, Blake Lively – to take in their latest triumph and are now just one division away from their end goal of the Premier League.
Wrexham may have steamrolled their way through League One but the Championship will be a far tougher nut to crack, meaning recruitment this summer will be key for Phil Parkinson’s side.
The club have been heavily linked with Vardy, 38, even before the Leicester City legend announced he would be leaving the King Power this summer – but the veteran goal machine seemingly has no appetite to drop down to the second tier.
As outlined by Mirror Football last week, Vardy wants to remain in the top-flight following Leicester’s relegation from the Premier League. It’s now been claimed by Sky Sports that Vardy flat out ‘does not want’ to join a team in the Championship, which would rule Wrexham out of the running for his signature.
Vardy has bags of experience and quality which would have made him a major coup for a Wrexham side who will play in the second tier for the first time in more than 40 years.
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But the North Wales outfit will have to look elsewhere for striking reinforcements. Parkinson briefly spoke transfers at the weekend, stressing that Wrexham’s newfound status as a Championship club will not lead to them dropping their ‘no dickheads’ recruitment policy.
He explained: “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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