Wrexham youngsters in limbo as club’s academy upgrade delayed – so what next?

Wrexham have been granted additional time in their application for Category Three academy status to bring facilities up to the required standard.

The Welsh club returned to the EFL in 2023 with a view to spending their first year back as a fourth tier youth set-up before stepping up again this summer.

Wrexham still hope to realise that plan but extra work has been required, including seeking out an alternative base for the academy, following a four-day audit by the Professional Game Academy Audit Company (PGAAC).

If the decision goes against the League One club, as a Category Four academy they would only be able to operate teams from Under-17s upwards.

This would be a huge blow for the youngsters who had signed up for the lower age teams with a view to representing the club in the 2024-25 season.

Parents were informed of the situation via a letter dated May 31 — seen by The Athletic — and signed by Academy Manager Andy Lowe.

He said the issue was “purely in relation to facilities” before adding, “I must reiterate there is still no guarantee of achieving Category 3 status for the new season and at this stage we will remain a Category 4 Academy”.

Regardless of the PGAAC’s eventual verdict, the current uncertainty again underlines the long-term need for a new training ground capable of housing not only Wrexham’s men’s first team but also the women’s and youth sides.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney made this a key target following their takeover in 2021, but finding a suitable site has proved difficult. As a result, manager Phil Parkinson’s team train at a series of rented facilities, including the Colliers Park complex once owned by Wrexham but sold by a previous ownership to the Football Association of Wales to alleviate financial problems.

Finding a permanent replacement for Colliers Park will be key to Wrexham’s setup reaching a level to compete for the best young players, especially with neighbours such as Crewe Alexandra already boasting a Category 2 academy.

McElhenney, left, and Reynolds made improving Wrexham’s training facilities a key target (Peter Byrne/Getty Images)

Under the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) implemented as a joint initiative between the Premier League and EFL in 2012, every club’s youth programme is graded on various criteria, including facilities, staffing levels and investment.

Audits are carried out by the PGAAC and clubs can apply to move up a level annually, as Wrexham did after initially being granted Category 4 status following their promotion back to the EFL in 2023.

Category 1 is the top level and traditionally the domain of elite clubs, such as Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool. Last season, three-quarters of the 20 Premier League clubs boasted Category 1 academies, along with another 11 in the 72-team EFL. Two of those, Southampton and Leicester City, have since been promoted to the Premier League.

To achieve the highest status, playing facilities must include enough grass pitches to accommodate all the various age levels, at least one floodlit grass pitch enclosed with perimeter fencing and designated areas for spectators, a floodlit artificial surface, and an indoor pitch, no smaller than 60 yards by 40 yards, that must be owned by the club.

Under the EPPP rules, Category 1, 2 and 3 academies can register players from under-nines to professionals. Category 4, in contrast, is regarded solely as a late-development model, meaning clubs can only operate teams from under-17s level.

Clubs can move up and down the pyramid, with Wrexham’s fellow League One side Birmingham City being Category 1 as recently as 2022 but now classed as Category 2. Birmingham’s biggest recent academy success is Jude Bellingham, the Real Madrid and England midfielder.

The value of Wrexham developing their own talent has been illustrated in recent months by Max Cleworth, the academy graduate having signed a three-year contract extension after starring on the League Two promotion run-in last season. However, the 21-year-old central defender is the exception rather than the norm at a club whose 15 years in non-League football until that 2023 promotion meant the youth setup inevitably suffered from a lack of investment.

Plenty of talented players have emerged from the Wrexham area in the past decade or so, only to join clubs in the region boasting more resources and better infrastructure, including a trio of now senior Wales internationals in Nottingham Forest full-back Neco Williams, Fulham winger Harry Wilson (who both came through Liverpool’s academy) and midfielder Tom Lawrence, now of Rangers in Scotland, who played at youth level for Everton, the Premier League’s other Merseyside club, and then nearby Manchester United.

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Wrexham are determined to change that.

Speaking last year after the club had applied for Category 4 status following promotion to League Two, executive director Humphrey Ker said: “Ever since the takeover of the football club, Rob and Ryan have been clear in their ambition to build a sustainable model for success, as well as reinforcing the legacies and traditions of Wrexham.

“As a club, we’ve missed out on the opportunity to sign lots of local talent, including the likes of Neco Williams, Harry Wilson and Tom Lawrence, as we’ve not had the infrastructure to support their development going forward. This will now change. We have ambitious and exciting plans to build an infrastructure capable of nurturing north Wales’ finest talents.”

(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)