Wrexham youth team in limbo as club academy modernisation delayed – what now?

Wrexham has been granted additional time during its application for Category 3 Academy status to bring its facilities up to the required standard.

The Welsh club returned to the EFL in 2023 and plan to spend its first year as a fourth-tier youth team before seeking promotion again this summer.

Wrexham still hopes to go ahead with this plan, but additional work has been required, including finding an alternative site 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, it would be allowed to operate a Category Four academy with teams from the U17s upwards.

This would be a major blow to the young players who had registered for the lower age group teams to represent the club in the 2024–25 season.

Parents were informed of the situation by letter dated 31 May – viewed by The athlete — and signed by Academy Director Andy Lowe.

He said the issue was “purely related to the facilities” but then added: “I must reiterate that there is still no guarantee that we will achieve Category 3 status in the new season and at this stage we will remain a Category 4 academy.”

Regardless of the PGAAC’s final verdict, the current uncertainty once again underlines the long-term need for a new training ground to accommodate not only Wrexham’s first men’s team, but also the women’s and junior teams.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney made this a key target after taking over in 2021, but finding a suitable site has proved difficult, so manager Phil Parkinson’s side train at a number of rented facilities, including the Colliers Park complex, which once belonged to Wrexham but was sold to the Welsh Football Association by a previous owner to ease financial problems.

Finding a permanent replacement for Colliers Park will be crucial for Wrexham’s club to reach a level where it can compete for the best young players, especially with neighbours such as Crewe Alexandra already boasting a Tier 2 academy.

McElhenney (left) and Reynolds made improving Wrexham’s training facilities one of their main goals (Peter Byrne/Getty Images)

Launched in 2012 as a joint initiative between the Premier League and the EFL, the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) assesses each club’s youth programme on a range of criteria, including facilities, staffing levels and investment.

The tests are run by the PGAAC and clubs can apply for promotion to a higher tier on an annual basis, as Wrexham did after initially being granted Category 4 status following their return to the EFL in 2023.

Category 1 is the top division and traditionally the domain of elite clubs such as Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool. Last season, three-quarters of the 20 Premier League clubs had Category 1 academies, as did a further 11 in the 72-team EFL. Two of these, Southampton and Leicester City, have since been promoted to the Premier League.

To achieve the highest status, the playing facilities must include sufficient grass pitches for all age groups, at least one floodlit grass pitch with fencing and designated spectator areas, one floodlit artificial turf pitch and an indoor pitch of at least 55 x 37 metres, which must be owned by the club.

According to EPPP rules, academies in categories 1, 2 and 3 can accept players from the U9 age group up to professionals. Category 4, on the other hand, is considered a late development model only, which means that clubs can only operate teams from the U17 age group onwards.

Clubs can move up and down the pyramid. Wrexham’s League One counterpart Birmingham City were in Category 1 in 2022 but are now classified in Category 2. Birmingham’s biggest academy success of recent times is Real Madrid and England midfielder Jude Bellingham.

The importance of Wrexham developing its own talent has been exemplified in recent months by Max Cleworth. The academy graduate has signed a three-year contract extension after playing a prominent role in last season’s promotion to League Two. However, the 21-year-old centre-back is the exception rather than the rule at a club whose 15 years in amateur football until promotion in 2023 meant that its youth system inevitably suffered from a lack of investment.

The last decade has seen many talented players emerge from the Wrexham area and join clubs in the region with more resources and better infrastructure. This includes a trio of now senior Welsh internationals: Nottingham Forest full-back Neco Williams, Fulham winger Harry Wilson (both came through Liverpool’s academy) and midfielder Tom Lawrence, now at Rangers in Scotland, who played at youth level for Everton, Merseyside’s other Premier League club, and then for nearby Manchester United.

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Wrexham is determined to change that.

Last year, after the club applied for Category 4 status following promotion to League Two, managing director Humphrey Ker said: “Since taking over the football club, Rob and Ryan have made clear their ambition to build a sustainable model of success while strengthening Wrexham’s heritage and traditions.”

“As a club, we missed the opportunity to sign many local talents, including Neco Williams, Harry Wilson and Tom Lawrence, as we lacked the infrastructure to support their development in the future. That will now change. We have ambitious and exciting plans to build an infrastructure capable of nurturing the best talent North Wales has to offer.”

(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)