PHIL PARKINSON is basking in Wrexham’s automatic promotion triumph but the focus will quickly turn to shaping his squad for the Reds’ return to the Football League following a 15 year absence.
Saturday’s 3-1 win against Boreham Wood secured the National League title and Wrexham will bring the curtain down on a record-breaking campaign when they face lowly Torquay United at Plainmoor this weekend.
Although pleased with squad he has compiled at The Racecourse, Parkinson will meet with Shaun Harvey, Strategic Advisor to the Board, to start planning for next season and discuss what reinforcements are needed.
“We are savouring the moment,” said Parkinson. “I think that is important.
“Myself and Shaun Harvey will meet towards the end of this week and assess the squad ahead of the next campaign.
“We will speak to the owners like we do and tell them our thoughts.
“We have purely focussed on getting over the line, now we can make decisions on the squad and see what we feel we need to add.
“The squad is good. We are pleased with the quality level in the group; there are a lot of players who have played above this division.
“Since I came in, the aim was always to build a squad which would grow with the club.
“We identified the players we feel could progress with us as a club and there is a great core of those who will be looking forward to the next stage of the journey.”
Parkinson also needs to make a decision on which players will be offered new deals ahead of the 2023-24 season.
“We have also got contract decisions to make,” said Parkinson.
“We will speak to the lads. We have got a game on Saturday first, we will get that out of the way and then we will make decisions on players.
“A lot of the younger players are out of contract as well so we need to assess those too.”
Executive director Humphrey Ker says the squad only needs tinkering with and that Wrexham won’t have a problem attracting new signings, especially with the club back in the Football League for the first time since 2008.
“This is a team that has beaten Coventry and ran Sheffield United close over two games in the FA Cup,” he said.
“We’ve accrued a record number of points in the National League and we think we’re ready to go again with some minor changes.
“Our mission will always be to try and get the best players we possibly can for each situation.
“Previously we’ve had to pay a bit of a premium to get people to come down to the National League because of the stigma that exists over non-league or Conference football. As we go up, I think we’ll have less of a challenge attracting people.
“I know Phil and Les Reed, who has been helping us as well on the recruitment side, are inundated with incoming calls from players because this is a place where people want to come and play football.”
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