Wrexham owner wants to WIN the Premier League as fan concerns shared – 'Not laughing now'
Rob McElhenney has revealed an audacious new goal for Wrexham to win the Premier League. The Welsh side have enjoyed unprecedented success under the co-ownership of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator and fellow Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds.
Since being bought by the two actors in February 2021, Wrexham have been propelled from the National League into the Championship after achieving three promotions in a row. The A-list pair have made it clear from day one that they want to take the Red Dragons all the way to the top flight.
McElhenney, who recently filed to legally change his name to Rob Mac, has now said that their ambition stretches even further than that as they aim to one day lift the Premier League title. However, while the 48-year-old is eager to reach that target as soon as possible, he stressed in an interview with Welsh broadcaster S4C that it would need to be done in a sustainable manner.
When asked whether he still thought Premier League status was achievable, McElhenney said: "That's the way the pyramid is set up and why not us? Why should that be reserved for other towns, for other cities?
"It doesn't mean it's going to be easy and it doesn't mean that it's just going to happen quickly. It could take many, many years for it to happen. We're going to make a push to do it as quickly as possible, because we don't know any other way to do it, but we're going to do it the right way."
While many fans might welcome the prospect of pushing for the top tier, McElhenney disclosed how some Wrexham supporters had expressed concerns to him. He said this was due to the impact it would have on their club, which has never played in the Premier League, and a lack of supporting infrastructure.
Wrexham's home stadium, the Racecourse Ground, has a reduced capacity of around 10,000 this season while work to build a new stand takes place. Meanwhile, the club is still without a permanent training facility after previously losing ownership of its old base at Colliers Park near Wrexham.
"We're going to do it [reach the Premier League] in the same way that we've been doing it from day one, which is asking the town," said McElhenney. "I sort of jumped the gun early on and just assumed that that's what the people of the town wanted for their club, and that that wasn't necessarily the case.
"I had a lot of very long conversations with people that said, 'Well, we might not be ready for that. The town might not be ready for that and the club might not be ready for that.'
"We have to make sure that we're always checking in with the community to make sure that this is what they want. It was a crazy pipe dream four or five years ago where we got laughed at by the media and by the world, but I don't think anybody's laughing anymore."
He added: "We don't want to build something that's unsustainable. As glorious as it might be to be promoted to the Premier League, it would be equally as tragic to be relegated again, because that can very quickly create that spiral downwards.
"Is the ultimate goal the Premier League? Yes, of course. Is it winning the Premier League? Yes, of course. But that actually isn't the number one goal. The number one goal is building something for the next generation and leaving something behind that is sustainable for the rest of its existence."
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Wrexham AFC is the arguably the fastest-growing club in the world at the moment thanks to a certain Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
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