Exclusive: Elliot Lee Silencing Critics Who Claimed He Joined Wrexham for the Money

Wrexham’s Elliot Lee hopes he has proved the critics who accused him of chasing the cash wrong.

Eyebrows were raised when Lee left Championship Luton Town for non-league Wrexham in 2022. 

It has been a fairytale at the Hollywood-owned club. Back-to-back promotions saw the Dragons return to the third tier for the first time in two decades.

Phil Parkinson’s side are fighting it out in the League One promotion mix and would become history makers if they could score an unprecedented hat-trick of successive promotions. 

On those who said he only went to the club for one reason, Lee told SportsBoom.com: “It’s an ill-informed view. It’s a judgement that people jump to.” 

“I went on loan to League One at Charlton, but technically it was a Championship playing dropping to non-league and they think it’s for one reason only.”

“It couldn’t have been further from the truth. It was something I saw myself being a part of. I felt valued from the conversations I had with the manager.”

“I wouldn’t say it was a no brainer. At the time I was technically leaving a Championship club to move to non-league.”

“It was a league I’d never been a part of and I never envisaged myself playing in the National League. Not in a disrespectful way, but I was leaving Luton in the Championship at the time.”

“There was a lot in the football world and there were questions raised about my motive for joining.”

“I like to think I’ve proved a few people wrong, whoever did have judgement when I arrived.”

LONG ROAD FOR THREE IN A ROW

Wrexham are currently sat in third place, four points off the promotion pace after a sticky period of three defeats in their last six.

But creative midfielder Lee stressed the Dragons’ dressing room will fight until the very end in their quest of history.

“It’s never been done before,” said Lee. “It’s a fairly boring answer. We know what we want to achieve and the hard work it’s going to take.”

“Of course, to break records and do something that’s never been done before by going back-to-back-to-back would be an incredible achievement.”

“There’s no underestimating how difficult a challenge that will be inside our dressing room. It’s something we’re going to give our all to achieve.”

ENTICING PROJECT REMINDS LEE OF HIS LUTON PAST

There are similarities between Wrexham and Luton, where Lee was part of another success story as the club rose from non-league to the Championship, and eventually the Premier League.

Granted, they have done it in different ways, but Wrexham is not the first fairytale story Lee has starred in after achieving successive promotions at Kenilworth Road in 2018 and 2019.

“From the very start I wanted a project like we had at Luton,” admitted Lee. “I wanted to go somewhere where we could rise up the leagues like Luton did.”

“I moved to Kenilworth Road with the club in League Two and left in the Championship.”

“I knew there was interest from Wrexham. I spoke to the manager a couple of times and it was clear then that I wanted to join Wrexham.”

“It was still a risk. It didn’t have to go as well it’s gone. There’s been a lot of hard work from everyone at the club.”

“In the end it’s turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made.”

The success we’ve had over the last couple of years is something I want to keep building on and hopefully do something similar to what we did at Luton or even better.”