Parkinson's five great years at Wrexham but work to do

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson has reflected on the club's progress in the five years since his appointment but insisted there is a "lot more work" ahead.

Parkinson was appointed by the club's Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac in July 2021 following the departure of Dean Keates.

The 58-year-old has guided the club from the National League to the Championship and is the division's longest-serving manager.

"It's an amazing stat when you look at that and it shows the nature of the industry and the job," Parkinson said.

"It's been a great five years and I've really enjoyed it."

Under Parkinson, Wrexham have achieved three successive promotions and last season finished seventh in the Championship, narrowly missing out on the play-offs.

Wrexham's squad have this week returned to pre-season training at the Carden Park resort near Chester as they begin preparations for 2026-27.

"This is where we started," Parkinson told BBC Sport Wales.

"When I first came in five years ago, we were training on the same pitch.

"Me and Steve (Parkin, his assistant) have been talking about how the squad's evolved over the years, the group we inherited in that pre-season and the staff.

"You look around now, we've built a really strong medical team, sports science department and where we were in that period and how things have progressed.

"And of course, there's still a lot more work to be done."

Progress on the pitch is mirrored by off-the-field developments such as construction of the new Kop Stand at Stok Cae Ras and a new pavilion at Colliers Park, Wrexham's former training ground which is now owned by the Football Association of Wales and Wrexham University.

"What is great for us, people can see the stands coming up and the module at Colliers taking shape as well," Parkinson added.

"As the club's progressed on the pitch - the training facilities in particular - it's been difficult to keep pace.

"Even though Colliers are great with us and the pitches are good, to have our own base there now is going to be a huge advantage because we're up against teams with state-of-the-art training grounds.

"Even in League One, a lot of teams have got really top-class facilities and we need that to attract players. It's progress we needed to make and when we come back from America [in pre-season], that should be ready to go into."

Wrexham face Sunderland, Liverpool and Leeds United on their tour of the United States later in the month.

Before then they travel to Poland to face Wisla Krakow in their opening pre-season friendly this Saturday followed a week later with a friendly against Manchester United in Helsinki.

"In terms of going to Krakow and Helsinki, that helps generate the revenue which we need to put into the budget to help us going forward," Parkinson said.

"And obviously, the America trip is important.

"So, as we've always done, we've embraced those trips and I think it's a very exciting pre-season for us."