"Maybe it is time" - Wrexham told to consider difficult Elliot Lee transfer decision | OneFootball

Wrexham have won their third straight promotion, but is it time to offload one of their stalwarts?

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Wrexham are celebrating their third straight promotion through the English footballing pyramid, but as they accelerate through the divisions, it's becoming clear that they will have some difficult decisions to make.

The Red Dragons have taken some players along with them for the ride from the National League to League One, and some of those have been stepping up every single time.

The Championship however is a different kettle of fish, and it may be time for Phil Parkinson to freshen his squad up this summer, which raises the futures of long-serving players like Elliot Lee into doubt.

Elliot Lee's Wrexham future plunged into doubt amid Championship promotion

The Championship will likely be an enormous challenge for Wrexham, and fresh faces will need to be brought in if they're to continue their upward trajectory - but this means that more established faces may need to be moved on to accommodate them.

Midfielder Elliot Lee has been with the club since the start of this adventure. He signed for Wrexham in August 2022 after having been released by Luton Town.

Since then, he's become an essential member of their first team squad with 129 league appearances and 36 goals, missing just one league game in his first two years with the club.

But the steps up required between divisions can be huge, and with Lee not starting regularly in the final few months of 2024-25, Parkinson may be eyeing an upgrade on the playmaker this summer.

FLW asked Wrexham fan pundit Liam Grice as to whether Lee should be moved on this summer somewhat regretably due to his past contributions.

"It's a tough one, because while there is definitely no room in football to be sentimental, especially given how quickly we've gone up the divisions, it feels very harsh to bin off a club legend because he's been involved in so much good during his time at the club," Liam told FLW.

"But on the other hand, he hasn't been starting games, he hasn't been too effective when he's come on, and we have better players in his position now, so maybe it is time for him to move on.

"I think he can still play at a pretty decent level and, if he's still ambitious enough to want something out of his career, a move to a League One or League Two side where he's going to be the star man would benefit him more, and it would allow us to get his wages off the books and invest in someone new.

"So, I think maybe, for his sake more than ours, it would be the best course of action, much as I would hate to see him leave".

There's no room for sentimentality in modern football - Elliot Lee may suffer from that this summer

In essence, professional football is an eternal tug of war between the head and the heart.

On the one hand, it is perfectly natural that Wrexham supporters would want to keep Elliot Lee around. He was, after all, a critical component in a team which gave those supporters three of the best seasons of their lives.

But the reality of Wrexham's position is that they need rebuilding work if they're to survive in the Championship, and perhaps the worst case scenario of all would be Lee sitting on the bench or worse, with the club continuing to pay him a wage that they could be paying somebody else.

And it doesn't have to be a bad thing for either party. Lee remains a perfectly good player at League One or League Two level, and having only turned 30 at the end of last year, there remains plenty of time for him to be able to seek further success elsewhere.

The pragmatic decision would be to let him go, but far from all the decisions made in football are that way inclined.