Magazines
The Red Passion guide
The best of the glossy mags' pre-season predictions for WFC...
Total Football
"Manager: Brian Flynn 7/10 - a good 'house manager' who's excellent at keeping the club in a comfortable position despite limited cash. Boardroom bigwig: Pryce Griffiths 7/10 - has the club's interests at heart, but the other directors should be doing more to attract sponsorship. Player to watch: Mark McGregor - improving with every season. Also, Neil Roberts, the find of 97/98 - has a phenomenal workrate and is a great chaser of lost causes. Player to get shot of: None. Bad boy: No-one - we're all angels in North Wales. Style of play: Patient passing game, but they lack flexibility in their system. Best of enemies: Chester - they're just over the border and English! Terrace song: Wrexham Lager and Red and White Army. Best Web site: http://www.csm.uwe.ac.uk/~klhender/wxm/index.html
Strangest merchandise: baby bibs - handy for wiping the egg off your face when you fail to reach the Play-offs. Top local boozer: The Turf, right inside the ground. If only we still had: Chris Armstrong (88-91) - we could use some pace up front and his goalscoring abilities wouldn't go amiss, either. If Wrexham were a drink what would they be: Wrexham Lager FC - it's all over the players' shirts and the fans love to sing about it. We'll probably add a dash of Carlsberg for this season's away trips. HOLYHEAD RED.
Fan's prediction 6th, TF prediction 7th, Title odds 25/1"
Four Four Two
"Last season's seventh place represented an improvement but, frankly, it still wasn't good enough. Wrexham should really have made the play-offs, dropping points at vital times, drawing at home when they should have won, meant that they lost out to Fulham on goals scored.
Brian Flynn is known to be looking for some badly needed goal-scorers and possibly a midfielder. However, money is tight and he may have to hunt for treasures among the free transfers. Flynn himself has been a target for both Norwich and Burnley but has decided to see out his contract (it runs until 2000) at the Racecourse Ground.
The new season looks bright for the Robins. They have a strong youth team, as shown by the emergence of striker Neil Roberts last season; if someone can be found to partner him, First Division football could be just around the corner.(SUSANNAH ASTON)
Player to watch: Andy Marriott. The Welsh national keeper has been transfer-listed and could move on to big things.
Player with something to prove: Kevin Russell. The much travelled midfielder-cum-striker has spent most of his two years with the club injured. For all that, if he can get fully fit he could be a key player."
When Saturday Comes
"How will your team do? Over the past three seasons we have missed a play-off place by the slimmest of margins (last season on goal difference). If Brian Flynn finds a regular scorer, I can see the team pushing for a top six spot.
Cliched headline: Firing Blanks!
Crucial act of last season: The failure to pick up a good striker. In the first half of the season the team went six consecutive games without scoring and lost significant points in ten drawn matches at home.
Least favourite team: Chester (although Shrewsbury come a close second). The trouble is these days that with us being in a higher division it's difficult to feel any animosity towards them.
What do you miss? A crowd! Four seasons ago we were promoted in front of crowds of 6-8,000. The following season almost half of them went AWOL and haven't come back.
Unique supporters' song: In response to the tedious "Sheep Shaggers" chant by opposition fans, to the tune of When The Saints Go Marching In: "Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful/Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful/They're white, fluffy and Welsh/Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful." GAVIN EVANS, TSG"