Wrexham in Europe? Who’d have thought it?

European competition is a major part of our identity of course. So many of the greatest games in our history were played in UEFA’s competition: the ludicrous victory over FC Porto and subsequent heroics against Roma; reaching the quarter-finals and coming close to progressing against Anderlecht; facing off against Zurich on our first continental match.

The door appears to be opening again to a return to representing Wales in Europe. As Swansea commissioned a feasibility study into returning into UEFA’s competition on behalf of the four Welsh clubs in the English pyramid, which reportedly forms the basis of a pitch to the FA and UEFA, it would seem the four of us are all on board with this.

For things to get this far, the FAW must also approve, and the massive obstacle of obtaining the Welsh league’s blessing seems to have been obtained as well.

They have executed a volte face as the prospect of a chunk of prize money and the improvement in Wales’ club coefficient.

There’s a huge discrepancy between our national side’s standing and that of the league. That’s natural as our domestic league isn’t producing, or featuring, international players. That’s a difficult issue to address; it’s probably pointless even attempting to.

However, the league’s standing has dropped to the point that only 5 leagues lie beneath them in the continent. That puts us slightly ahead of the likes of Gibraltar, whose entire league programme is played at one stadium.

Addressing that slide is an urgent priority for the FAW. If I am reading the overstuffed, confusing new formats of the UEFA competitions, the Welsh league appears to have lost a spot in the Conference League next season. I could be wrong, because you need a degree in Genuisness and the misguided self-confidence of Mark Clattenberg to confidently state that you knew what the heck was going on in the new European competitions.

Amazingly, before the group stage draws this season, a Chilean statistician threatened to sue UEFA for failing to give him the credit for their new model. That’s such bizarre behaviour: who on earth would want to claim the responsibility for such a dreadful excitement-killer of a format?

Anyway, that low ranking is where we come in. If the four professional sides step in and monopolise the competition, which they ought to, then we’d have competitive teams in the Conference League, with a realistic chance of getting to the group stage. We’d get the excitement of potentially facing some big opponents, and the Welsh pyramid would benefit in terms of prize money and an improvement in coefficient which might lead to extra European places.

The idea appeals to me, but there are bumps in the road which we need to be able to negotiate before justifying such an idea.

At the moment we are guaranteed to play a minimum of 51 games a season: our league programme plus 1 FA Cup match, 1 League Cup match and three Bristol Street Motors Trophy game.

Adding the Welsh League Cup to that total won’t really bring about much strain to the players or disruption to our programme, as we’d probably select a reserve/youth team against Welsh League teams and only consider selecting the first team against the other sides in the English pyramid.

That could be highly beneficial. Remember the Welsh Premier Cup? That peculiar competition was created by the BBC to bring the Welsh and English league clubs together when the realisation that the Welsh Premier League wasn’t going to be quite what the FAW had hoped kicked in.

We used the competition to blood young players, and the likes of Neil Roberts, Neil Wainwright and Mark Cartwright certainly benefitted: the bloated group stage of the competition offered twice as many group games as the EFL Trophy did, so these young players could test themselves more regularly against older opponents who were playing for their careers. It allowed them to develop as players, and force themselves into the first team earlier than might have happened had they not had those games to show they were ready.

Should we qualify for Europe, there would be more serious repercussions for our schedule. We’d have to fight our way through the qualifying ties in the Summer, which could clash with any tours we might plan, and if we got to the group stage we’d have 8 extra matches to squeeze in by the end of January. Parky would have to get his rotation hat on and plan ahead.

In general, I’m excited by the idea, but there are a couple of questions I’d like resolved before whole-heartedly endorsing the notion.

The first concerns the breadth of Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ ambition. They’ve made no secret of the fact that they feel they could get us to The Championship under their own steam, but would probably need more investment to take that last step to the Premier League.

They’ve already started that process with the sale of minority stakes in the club, so we find ourselves with a dilemma. We’d have to forego qualification for Europe via the English competitions – the Premier League, the FA Cup and the EFL Cup – to take the newly proposed route.

At the moment qualifying through those routes seems a long shot, but ask yourself if you’d view the choice in the same way four years ago? We’ve made incredible progress, and it’s not unrealistic to presume that we might get into a position where reaching Europe through the English routes could be possible.

I know that representing Wales and playing in Europe will naturally tempt Rob and Ryan, as they tempt me. But will they see the possibility of getting to Europe through continuing our remarkable rise through the divisions yield greater rewards?

I guess my bottom line is that I want us to grasp this opportunity, as long as there’s an understanding among all parties that, should we reach the Premier League, we’d we welcomed back under the FA’s auspices and be able to tilt at Europe through that route which, while more difficult, would yield much greater rewards.

If you want to accuse me of being willing to hop from one route to the other with no consideration for the consequences on others, of being selfish, or avaricious, I’ll plead guilty.

However, when it comes to supporting, or running, a football club, sentiment can’t come into it. If the FAW accept that we’ll lend our support to their cause until something better comes along, and the FA are happy to accept us if that happens, then I’d commit to it.

I wouldn’t book that table at a restaurant on the Plaza Mayor for a reunion with Andy Mangan in Madrid just yet, but perhaps Oulun Palloseura need to prepare themselves for their role in the sixth season of welcome to Wrexham!