Turmoil seems to be the defining theme of this century, and the rapid change we’re living through even impacts on life’s trivial affairs. 

Football means nothing in the face of what we’re currently seeing on the news, but change at global level trickles down, and even Wrexham can’t avoid the consequences. Whatever you think of Brexit, there’s no question it’ll affect our strategy just at the point where we’re in a position to grow. 

The new rules brought into football as a result of Brexit could prove to be a major problem for us. Certainly, they mean we’re looking to expand at a moment when competition for local talent will intensify massively.

The new regulations make it illegal to sign a player from abroad between the ages of 16 and 19. While that doesn’t obviously affect us directly, the big clubs’ academies will need to develop new recruitment strategies to compensate for the massive restrictions now placed on where they can find young talent.

That’s why we saw talented Wrexham youngster Dan Davies (above) go to Chelsea on trial recently. Before Roman Abramovic was hit with sanctions, the European champions were meticulously picking through non-league football looking for talent because they could no longer head to the continent in search of academy players.

The competition between Premier League sides for young players is intense, with Football League clubs finding holding onto players massively challenging. Chelsea’s strategic decision to set their sights on what they hoped would be an unexploited market led to them signing Jayden Wareham from Woking and Bradley Ryan from Welling United, as well as having a close look at Davies.

Of course, Chelsea can’t continue this policy because they are now barred from bringing any players in, but their scouring of clubs at our level and below shows that the Premier League youth systems are desperately seeking talent, and the British youth market is incredibly competitive.

The new Brexit rules apply beyond youth football, of course. Recruiting players from Europe will now be placed on an equal footing from players from the rest of the world. This could genuinely affect our approach as we look to scale the divisions.

I’m not suggesting we were about to convince Kylian Mbappe that North Wales was just the spot to take the next step in his stellar career (although if you’re reading this Kylian, I’m willing to personally buy you a year’s membership at Waterworld and a gift voucher for the Bank Street Social!). 

However, the ability to attract experienced European players on a lower wage than a Championship player would demand could have been an attractive tactic. It has certainly been a tried and tested approach for plenty of EFL sides who raid the French, Belgian and Dutch leagues.

That door is closed to us now though. Recruiting players aged 18 or above, from Europe, or indeed anywhere outside the UK, now works on a points-based system. International appearances, at senior or youth level, and club appearances determine whether a player will be granted a visa, but there’s a further complication which will shut off the market we’d look to exploit.

The club which is selling the player will also be evaluated, in terms of its league position, the strength of that league, and how well they have done recently in European competition. 

Putting it simply, previously there’d be no restriction on the talent we could import from Europe: if we spotted a raw diamond of a centre back in the Norwegian second division, there’d be nothing to stop us signing him. Now, we’ll be restricted to poaching international players from sides currently in European competition. I know Rob McElhenney’s persuasive, but that’d be a heck of a hard sell!

Essentially, it would now be as easy to sign a player from Uruguay or East Timor as it would be to draft in that Norwegian. We’ll be shopping in a terrifically restricted market this Summer, with lots of clubs looking in the same places we are. It’s a good thing we now have the wherewithal to outmuscle some competitors, but it’s a shame the market has changed, because with less competition we could have made our money go a heck of a long way.