Dean Keates: Former Wrexham boss expected to lose job after Hollywood takeover

Former manager Dean Keates says the Hollywood takeover at Wrexham meant he expected to lose his job regardless of whether he led the club back to the Football League.

With his Wrexham contract up at the end of last season, Keates left the Racecourse after missing out on the National League play-offs.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took control of the club in February 2021.

"It's football - takeovers happen," Keates said.

"When new owners come in there's always change and it's more than likely the manager [that changes]. People like to have their own staff in."

Keates' departure was announced after Wrexham dropped out of the play-off places on the final day of the 2020-21 season.

He says his contract had actually expired the previous month, with the season overrunning because of Covid-19.

Ex-Walsall boss Keates, who was in his second spell managing Wrexham, feels he would have left the north Wales club even if they had made it to League Two.

"With five games left, I had almost been told - not directly, through somebody at the football club to my agent's company - that I wouldn't be there the following season," he told BBC Sport Wales.

"I knew what was coming."

The lack of fans at games due to Covid-19 meant there were what Keates calls "massive cuts" to his playing budget in what proved to be his final season at the helm.

He says Wrexham's management team were though "given a bit of hope" about what they may be able to spend in the 2021 January transfer window "but nothing materialised".

"There's no bitterness," Keates added. "There's disappointment at how it ended, and one or two things saying 'you are going to get this' and it doesn't happen.

"There were a few things at the tail-end of the season that you have to try to manage to keep the group focused.

"You just felt everything was being lined up anyway, even before I had the confirmation that I wasn't going to be the manager. But there's no bitterness."

Having invested heavily in the likes of Paul Mullin, Ollie Palmer and Ben Tozer since Keates' exit, Wrexham have reached the National League play-offs this season under his successor, Phil Parkinson.

They hope to seal a place in the play-off final, which takes place at the London Stadium on Sunday, 5 June, when they host Grimsby Town in the semi-final on Saturday.

"There are some great players [at Wrexham] and they have to show their quality against Grimsby," Keates said.

"There will be passion and emotion inside the stadium. They have to feed on that, but they also have to play the game and not the occasion. They have been in unbelievable form at home so long may that continue."

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