Wrexham

Image source, Getty Images

Wrexham are being linked with Wales and former Rangers striker Tom Lawrence in Monday's gossip.

The Wrexham-born forward is a free agent with his contract at the Scottish club up this summer.

Stockport County - who missed out on joining Wrexham in the Championship after losing to Leyton Orient in the play-off semi-final - are also said to be interested in the 31-year-old.

A Manchester United academy product, Lawrence made one first-team appearance at Old Trafford at the start of a career that has seen him play for Leicester, Rotherham, Cardiff, Ipswich and Blackburn.

After scoring 37 goals in a five-year spell at Derby County, he joined Rangers in 2022, scoring 11 goals in 65 games.

Lawrence was included in Wales' squad for World Cup qualifiers in March this year, though his most recent and 23rd cap was in March 2021.

Earlier this month Wrexham signed ex-Rangers striker Ryan Hardie from Plymouth Argyle, adding to attacking options which include January signings Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez.

Veteran former Scotland international Steven Fletcher was released following their promotion from League One last season, but the squad also includes the likes of Jack Marriott, Ollie Palmer and Paul Mullin, who has been urged to stay and fight to regain his place in Phil Parkinson's line-up.

Image source, Getty Images

Ryan Hardie is "excited" to join Wrexham after the Championship-bound club made the Scottish striker their first signing of the summer.

Hardie, 28, has joined from Plymouth Argyle for an undisclosed fee and has signed a deal with the north Wales club until the end of the 2027-28 season.

Wrexham will be playing in English football's second tier for the first time since 1982 after securing their third successive automatic promotion last season.

"I love how family-oriented the club is, the community is all together and it really is a one-club City," Hardie said.

"Everything is to do with the football, and I'm really excited to be a part of that – I'll give everything I've got for the badge."

Image source, Getty Images

Former Wales defender James Chester and Premier League winner Marc Albrighton will feature for Wrexham Red Dragons in The Soccer Tournament (TST).

Wrexham Red Dragons feature for a third successive year at the seven-a-side, $1m winner-takes-all competition in Cary, North Carolina which begins on Wednesday, 4 June.

Back-to-back promotion winning captain Ben Tozer, who recently announced his retirement from professional football, is also included in the squad along with two other former Wrexham players, Liam McAlinden and Jake Hyde.

Ex-Scotland international George Boyd features once again for the Red Dragons, who are managed by first-team coach David Jones and will face AFC Bournemouth, Real Athletico and CONCAFA SC.

Wrexham Red Dragons' women's team, meanwhile, will take on Ultrain FC, Drunken Monkeys and KC Current II.

Their squad includes former Wrexham players Del Morgan and Mia Roberts as well as former England internationals Katie Chapman and Rachel Unitt.

Image source, Getty Images

Striker Ollie Palmer is determined to reclaim his place in the Wrexham starting side despite falling out of favour in the 2024-25 campaign.

Palmer, 33, and fellow frontman Paul Mullin were instrumental in back-to-back promotions that took Wrexham out of the National League and then up to League One.

But following the January signings of forwards Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez, both Palmer and Mullin struggled for game time as Wrexham claimed promotion to the Championship.

Palmer told CBS Sports: "I've got another season [left on his contract]. I've actually had that [rumours of leaving] since I arrived in January 2021, three-and-a-half years ago. Every window since I've been at the club, people think I'm going to leave.

"There's always those rumours there, but I'm going to come back, fight for my shirt, get fit, get ready and go again with the football club."

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson has already confirmed to BBC Sport Wales that Mullin and Palmer would remain at the club for next season, previously saying: "Mulls and Ollie will always be legends at this club for what they've done. They're under contract next year and they'll be back in pre-season ready to go again."

But with Wrexham poised to strengthen the squad once more in the transfer market, Palmer is under no illusion that competition for places will be even more fierce next season.

He added: "Since I've been at Wrexham, new players have come through the door like Steven Fletcher, James McClean and Jay Rodriguez. They're great people, by the way, before you even talk about their footballing ability.

"I think the gaffer [Parkinson] will keep doing that by bringing in good people first and then bringing good footballers after. That's what we build our foundations on.

"We get linked with everyone, though, it is ridiculous. The manager knows who he wants, I'm sure, and the club will do their best to go out and get those players."

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Former Wrexham manager Dean Saunders believes that owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney will again make funds available for manager Phil Parkinson to strengthen the squad for next season's Championship campaign.

Parkinson led Wrexham to their third consecutive promotion this season after finishing second in League One.

"It's unbelievable... they've done it, and it's brilliant for the town," said Wales striking great Saunders.

"I thought it was a joke when these two film stars came in. I think everyone thought it was a wind-up. But it looks to me as if they're going to put their hands in their pockets again.

"They're going to have to because obviously you're competing with Premier League salaries now.

"In League One and League Two and the National League, there's not a lot of difference in the wages – a couple of thousand either way – but some of these players playing for, say, Leicester and Ipswich – they're on £100,000 a week.

"You've got to try and put a team on the pitch that can compete with them, which is difficult."

Although the Wrexham face a steep step-up in competition, Saunders - who after finishing playing began his managerial career with the north Wales club from 2008–2011 - believes they be competitive.

"Definitely. If you've got that momentum," he added.

"Sorry to bring Man Utd up in this situation, but if you look at what gets into a club and makes the demise of it... Wrexham have got it the other way round, where they have got that winning formula, a winning confidence and everybody working their socks off at the club.

"And they have got that momentum which can make them compete. But it is going to be tough."

Monday Night Club pundit Rory Smith believes a move to newly-promoted Leeds United would make sense for Jamie Vardy.

Vardy, who will leave Leicester City at the end of the season, told Sky Sports he has no intention of retiring and believes he can continue to deliver in the Premier League.

Speaking on who Vardy might be suitable for on BBC Radio 5 Live, Smith said: "I think he actually makes a lot of sense for Leeds if he can overcome his inherent Sheffield Wednesday fan status.

"The experience, there aren't that many proven goal scorers available. Leeds have plenty of goals in the team but they don't have a focal point.

"There's questions about whether Joel Piroe can make the step up. I think there's a logic to Leeds."

Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer

Ian Hunt
BBC Sport Wales

Image source, Getty Images

It was a case of Las Vegas and bust for a string of Wrexham stalwarts who have been shown the door by the club ahead of next season's Championship campaign.

No sooner had several stepped back onto UK soil following a lavish promotion party in the American casino capital, than they found out they would have no stake in the club's future.

Steven Fletcher headlined a list of fans' favourites who have been released by Wrexham following their promotion to the second tier, the 38-year-old former Scotland striker revealing he was leaving "with a heavy heart" and "not by choice".

Other key figures in Wrexham's rise through the leagues - or some with strong attachments to the club - have followed Fletcher out of the Stok Cae Ras, including goalkeeper Mark Howard and hometown hero Jordan Davies.

But recent history tells us this apparently ruthless culling of popular players is nothing new - and is only likely to help their bid to be a force in the Championship.

Rewind 12 months and it was Red Dragons captain Ben Tozer who was ditched by manager Phil Parkinson, despite being a crucial part of Wrexham's rise from National League to League One.

Tozer was joined on the exit list by club captain Luke Young - a hugely popular figure with fans and another key component of their back-to-back promotions - while Welshman Davies never got to play in League One for his local club, spending the 2024-25 campaign on loan at Grimsby Town.

Rather than stay loyal to everyone who helped Wrexham reach League One, Parkinson chose to roll the dice and upgrade his squad. And, of course, it has paid off handsomely with another step up the Football League ladder.

So perhaps it should come as little surprise to see the likes of Fletcher departing this summer, despite the Scot scoring eight goals for the club in 2024-25 and his invaluable heroics from the subs' bench.

Clearly, that is the plan once more, to free up space in the squad for better - and, in Fletcher's case, younger - players who can help Wrexham thrive in the second tier.

Of course, that ruthlessness is not just a summer thing - Parkinson showed plenty of it in the January transfer window by signing strikers Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez in the belief it would help get Wrexham over the promotion line.

That meant goalscoring heroes Paul Mullin, who is still contracted to the club until 2027, and Oli Palmer, who has a year left on his current deal, were frozen out for the last few months of the campaign.

So perhaps now comes the ultimate test of Parkinson's ruthlessness - is Mullin, the club's seventh highest goalscorer of all time, having netted 110 times since joining from Cambridge United in the summer of 2021, really still part of the manager's plans? Or would he encourage the striker to find a new club?

Parkinson said earlier this month that 30-year-old Mullin and Palmer, 33, would return for pre-season, but even if there is still room in the squad for them once any new strikers arrive, how much game time would they get?

Ruthless business, football. Watch this space.

Image source, Getty Images

Fulham midfielder Tom Cairney is said to be a target for Championship-bound Wrexham in Friday's gossip.

Reports claim the 34-year-old former Scotland international is set to be offered a deal worth £50,000 a week when he leaves the Cottagers on a free transfer.

Cairney has spent the last decade with the west London club and has played 318 Championship games during his career as well as 412 Premier League matches.

The Nottingham-born former Leeds United youth player featured 23 times in the top flight for the Cottagers this season, scoring one goal.