Wrexham boss explains why he didn’t go Las Vegas amid snub claims

Wrexham players’ celebratory trip to Las Vegas following the National League title win earlier this year was missing their manager, Phil Parkinson

Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson has revealed he missed the summer trip to Las Vegas by choice as he let his players and staff celebrate promotion to the Football League.

The Welsh Club’s Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bankrolled the trip to the US as a reward for their National League triumph. But Parkinson admitted on talkSPORT: “I didn’t make the Vegas trip. It was by choice. It was by choice only. I thought just let the players go and enjoy it, and all the staff.

“The owners very kindly paid for the staff to go to Portugal, so we left the players to it.” When asked whether he didn’t want to “cramp the players’ style”, Parkinson responded: “Exactly. Exactly. I would have done.”

Wrexham have enjoyed a good start to their League Two campaign. They sit fifth and only three points off league leaders Stockport. In their last game, Wrexham came from two goals down to beat Salford City thanks to strikes by Elliot Lee, Steven Fletcher, and Jordan Davies.

Parkinson added on the victory: “Every winter is important and 2-1 down at half-time, I felt that in the second half that if we could get a bit of momentum going, get one back, we’d go and win it. The second goal obviously came almost immediately. Probably on the balance of play, we had the better chances. First half, it was an average performance from us. But the second half, a lot better.”

Co-owners Reynolds and McElhenney will be pleased with the club’s start to 2023 and Parkinson says the acting duo take an active interest in the day-to-day ongoings. “Very much so,” Parkinson said of the duo’s involvement. “Ryan is going to be over for quite a while in the next few months.

“But Rob and Ryan are very interested in all the players we sign, what team we’re selecting, watch every single game from over in America. They’re really, really involved but not kind of involved in telling us what team to pick, or who to sign, they let us get on with it, which is great. They’re really enjoying being part of the Club.”

Wrexham travel to Bradford on Saturday to face which has endured an indifferent start to the season. The Bantams are sitting middle of the pack in 11th but are on a run of three consecutive wins.