Wrexham goalkeeper Ben Foster has insisted the Welsh club will have no trouble in adjusting to life in the English Football League next season after winning promotion to League Two. The veteran goalkeeper played a key role towards the end of the season in helping Wrexham secure the National League title ahead of Notts County and he has cast some bold predictions for Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s club next season.
Wrexham finished top of the National League with a record haul of 111 points, four ahead of Notts County, to gain promotion back to the EFL for the first time since 2008 after a 15-year absence.
Foster had his own moment of glory in helping the team achieve the goals under ambitious owners, Hollywood actors Reynolds and McElhenney, when he saved a last-minute penalty to seal a 3-2 win over their promotion rivals.
The 40-year-old goalkeeper, formerly of Manchester United, Stoke and Watford, faces a wait to see if his contract will be extended this summer after only joining Wrexham on a short-term contract in March, having come out of retirement.
And while he offered no assurances he would be part of Wrexham’s League Two challenge next season, Foster is confident they woll succeed – using an example of his first day of training to prove they are good enough to mix it with more established clubs in the fourth tier.
“I think we’ll do alright, I really do,” he said on The Fellas podcast. “That first day of training when I got to see them, I thought ‘ooh, there’s no way you’re National League’. I genuinely thought they’d do alright in League One, and maybe even in the Championship they’d hold their own.
“Wrexham last season beat Coventry in the FA Cup, held Sheffield United to a 3-3 draw and they scored a last-minute equaliser, and they only just narrowly lost in the reverse fixture as well. So they know how to play these types of players and they will step up their game when they need to.
“I’ve already seen a stat that says Wrexham are favourites to get promoted already. We’ve just been promoted, and now we’re favourites to go up again. I’d back that as well… I’d back that because they’re ballers.”
Foster also hailed Reynolds and McElhenney for taking a measured approach to transfers, rather than blow hundreds of thousands and even millions on new players like other owners have done in the past.
And the experienced stopper thinks Wrexham will make subtle improvements to their squad this summer without “going crazy”.
“The owners want to do it properly, and I’ve never seen owners like them in my life, I promise you. Two guys [Reynolds and McElhenney] that just want to do it properly,” he added.
“They’ve got one guy below them, Sean Hardy, he’s worked in football all of his life and he is the most sensible bloke they could have possibly hired. If there’s a guy we want to sign, he’ll find out everything about him, doing his due diligence.
“He’s also that guy that will say ‘listen, we’re not paying ridiculous wages’. We’re not going to be blowing teams out of the water… we’ll pay a premium, but we’re not going to go crazy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they signed three players, three or four players maximum. But it’ll be real quality players that can actually improve the squad.”
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