Luke Young: Wrexham have 'no excuses' ahead of EFL return, says captain
- Published
Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney chats with players during the club's US tour
Club captain Luke Young insists Wrexham are ready "to hit the ground running" ahead of their return to the Football League.
Wrexham host MK Dons on Saturday in their first EFL game for 15 years.
The opening day of the League Two campaign comes only a week after Wrexham returned from the United States.
"We can't have any excuses - we can't use the America trip as an excuse," Young told BBC Sport Wales.
"It would be easy to use the excuse that we only got back a week ago but I know as a group we're not going to be using that as an excuse.
"We've got to use it as a bonus and as a stepping stone to come back and hit the ground running.
"We'll be fully ready to go come three o'clock on Saturday."
National League champions Wrexham faced Chelsea, Manchester United, LA Galaxy and Philadelphia Union II during their two weeks in the US.
The north Wales club are popular in north America due to their Hollywood owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds and the Disney+ documentary Welcome to Wrexham.
"It takes you by surprise how big Wrexham are over there," Young added.
"To have the following that we have out there, it's phenomenal to say the least.
"You set foot in a different country that's the other side of the world and you're getting recognised and people stopping you for photos.
"You associate it with the Premiership sides, because they're going out there and everybody knows who they are.
Here comes the new season
"Now we're going out there and people know we are.
"You see so many Wrexham tops and you're seeing billboards and advertisements for Welcome to Wrexham documentary and different photos of players dotted around the place.
"Because of everything that's gone on here, the buzz around the town and that you are getting spotted in so many places, you kind of take it in your stride.
"It's not until you get back and you look back over the trip on you think 'Yeah, we're well known out there' and you think is it really happening?
"It's a definite eye opener to where the club have come from to where they are now."
Young can fully appreciate how far the club has come since he was signed by then manager Sam Ricketts from Torquay United in May 2018.
He has played under five permanent managers in all and has seen the club's fortunes transformed since the arrival of Reynolds and McElhenney in 2021.
Under the Hollywood owners, Wrexham won last season's National League title and secure a return to the Football League for the first time since 2008.
"15 years of hurt, heartache, ups and downs, almost getting relegated to being so close to getting out of the league on a number of occasions to finally doing it," Young reflected.
"People were even thinking were we ever going to get out of this league after so many years and it was a relief to finally do that.
"We're back in the EFL and we want more. We want to be up there this season as well.
"We have the confidence, the drive and the ambition to certainly do that."