PAUL RUTHERFORD believes the sky's the limit for Wrexham and insists seeing his former club in the Premier League is a realistic ambition.

Phil Parkinson's enjoyed a record-breaking 2022-23 campaign and clinched automatic promotion from the National League, returning to the Football League following a 15-year absence.

Bookmakers are backing Wrexham to continue rising through the divisions under Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, with the Reds favourites for next season's League Two title.

Rutherford, who made nearly 200 appearances during his five-season stint at The Racecourse from 2016 to 2021, is predicting a second successive promotion and doesn't expect the success story to end there.

Being a Premier League club under the multimillionaire actors has been scoffed at in some quarters but the 35-year-old midfielder insists it is possible because of the infrastructure already in place and a strong desire to make it to the top-flight for the first time.

"We've known for years it is a massive football club and I think the sky's the limit for Wrexham," said Rutherford, who represented a Wrexham Red Dragons side, made up of current, former and guest players, in a recent The Soccer Tournament - a $1m winner-takes-all seven-a-side event in North Carolina.

"I don't want to add any pressure to it but in my opinion, they will get promoted from League Two.

"League One will bring slightly different obstacles but I think they will be competitive and if the model is correct, as it looks from what I saw on the tour, I believe the club can get where it wants to be.

"I know Premier League has been mentioned and laughed about in the past but there are clubs like Bournemouth, Brentford and now Luton in the Premier League that have got the same base that Wrexham has got.

"They haven't got the same infrastructure that Wrexham has got, they haven't got the same fanbase and they haven't got the same reach that Wrexham has got, and that is why it will be successful.

"That is why I genuinely believe that the sky's the limit and why not say Wrexham could be a Premier League club because that is the ambition there.

"That's not to say people expect it or expect it to happen straight away but that's the ambition."