Paul Mullin and Elliot Lee have left Wrexham AFC this summer, bringing two defining spells at the Cae Ras to an end just as Phil Parkinson reshapes his Championship squad following the 2026 transfer window. Both joined when Wrexham were still fighting to escape the National League, then helped carry the club through three consecutive promotions.
Mullin arrived first in 2021, fresh from scoring 32 league goals for Cambridge United as they won promotion from League Two. Persuading the division’s leading scorer to drop into non-league was some piece of recruitment, even for a club whose ambitions had changed almost overnight.
Lee followed from Luton Town in July 2022 despite having EFL offers of his own. He explained at the time:
“I wanted to join somewhere that excited me. I had a few EFL offers but after hearing about the ambition of this club, it was Wrexham for me.”
Paul Mullin and Elliot Lee helped turn ambition into reality
The ambition Lee spoke about soon stopped being theoretical. Wrexham won the National League with 111 points in 2022/23, went straight through League Two the following season and then secured another promotion from League One in 2024/25.
That made Wrexham the first club in the top five tiers of English football to achieve three successive promotions. Mullin and Lee were there for all three, their goals providing much of the attacking thrust behind a climb that changed the club beyond recognition.
Across those three promotion campaigns, Mullin scored 78 times in 113 appearances in all competitions. Lee contributed 40 goals from 145 appearances, including 16 during the League Two promotion season.
Their final Wrexham numbers tell an even bigger story. Mullin departed with 110 goals in 172 first-team appearances, placing him ninth among the club’s leading men’s scorers, while Lee finished with 41 goals from 152 appearances.
Wrexham’s transfer window shows how the challenge has changed
The contrast with this summer is difficult to miss. Wrexham completed seven senior additions, including Callum O’Hare, Joe Worrall and the permanent return of Issa Kaboré, as Parkinson strengthened a squad now operating at Championship level.
It is a very different market from the one Wrexham entered when Mullin and Lee were persuaded to drop down the pyramid. Back then, signing proven EFL players for a National League promotion push was the statement.
Now the job is building a squad capable of competing higher up the Championship. The changing profile of Parkinson’s options offers perhaps the clearest indication yet of how quickly Wrexham’s circumstances have shifted.
Two departures capture Wrexham’s transformation
There is inevitably some sadness attached to losing players so closely associated with the rise. Mullin’s goals made him one of the faces of the project, while Lee’s clever movement and knack for arriving in dangerous areas repeatedly made the difference across three divisions.
Yet their departures also underline the success of what they helped build. They joined a club trying to reclaim its Football League place and leave one established in the Championship, with three promotions separating those two versions of Wrexham.
The summer arrivals represent the next phase. Mullin and Lee will always represent the extraordinary journey that made it possible.
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