Whereas Wrexham’s Hollywood period has produced three consecutive promotions and seen the departure of many “icons” to pave method for the following heroes, Max Cleworth stays one of many constants all through.
In Cleworth grew to become the main appearance-maker of Phil Parkinson’s reign, surpassing Paul Mullin’s 172 video games beneath the English boss.
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Cleworth, nonetheless solely 23, is Wrexham’s closing on-field survivor of the Nationwide League days, although Davis Keillor-Dunn and Ryan Barnett, who has performed 12 occasions within the league this season, have just lately returned.
Since his debut whereas a 17-year-old academy participant the Chester-born defender has made 175 appearances in pink.
Cleworth, who featured 29 occasions in the course of the Nationwide League Marketing campaign, has now reached this identical variety of appearances within the Championship marketing campaign. Within the meantime as Wrexham climbed the divisions, Cleworth’s affect has solely grown.
An more and more distinguished determine for Parkinson, he has helped Wrexham maintain eight clear sheets, and in line with FotMob, no participant within the squad registers extra blocks per 90 minutes.
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Cleworth’s affect has grown on the different finish too, with 4 targets this season, together with the dramatic stoppage time equaliser at Blackburn in November 2025.
From Nationwide League to Championship mainstay
Cleworth signed his first skilled contract in 2020 earlier than a mortgage to Caernarfon City for normal video games.
He returned to start out in Parkinson’s first ever match as Wrexham supervisor, a 2-2 draw at Solihull Moors in August 2021.
From Solihull journeys to away days at St Mary’s and the King Energy, Cleworth has grown enormously and promotion would imply the prospect of journeys to very large historic golf equipment resembling Manchester United are on the horizon.
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Parkinson is stuffed with reward for his fellow Englishmen, saying: “I simply assume Max has received a singular story in soccer, not simply right here at Wrexham, as a result of I do not assume there’s one other participant who’s gone from Nationwide League so shortly into the Championship.
“To observe him adapt every season has been fulfilling. He is a really skilled lad. He works actually arduous at his recreation.
“Very often he would be the final individual on the coaching pitch. He is labored arduous with the sports activities science guys and all facets of his recreation. And you have to whenever you step up by the divisions and he is finished that. And he deserves now to be a Championship participant.”
Throughout Wrexham’s rise from non-league to the Championship many early pillars of the squad fell by the wayside, however not Cleworth.
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Sam Vokes mirrored on the Feast of Soccer podcast: “I feel these gamers that received them to the Championship degree and now pushing for the Premier League, they’ve virtually turn out to be icons of the soccer membership.
“And so they’ve been a part of these promotions and whenever you’re a part of a promotion, you are all in it collectively, you are preventing, and also you obtain that collectively.
“And then you definately need to go and play collectively at that subsequent degree. However look, the calls for of the following degree imply they’ve needed to carry new folks in, regenerate the squad they usually’ve gone from power to power.
“So, I do not need to say these boys that received them there have been left behind, nevertheless it’s all the time going to be arduous to maintain enjoying up a degree and up a degree and up a degree.
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“I feel it is type of caught a number of of them up and it is felt like the suitable time for them to maneuver on.”
For Mullin, Elliot Lee and former captain James McClean, that regeneration meant shifting on within the January switch window.
But amid the squad’s evolution, Cleworth has endured.
“I feel he is nice. He is a prime man. I do not assume there’s a ceiling he cannot break by,” mentioned his team-mate Lewis O’Brien.
He stays considered one of solely two gamers, alongside Barnett, to have performed for Wrexham in the entire divisions from Nationwide League to the Championship and one other promotion would full a historic rise.
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Cleworth – the tie between Wrexham’s eras
Cleworth is the ultimate hyperlink to the “dangerous previous days within the Nationwide League” as Feast of Soccer Host Carl Roberts known as it.
Cleworth has missed solely three matches in all competitions this season and has performed an essential function in key moments resembling scoring Wrexham’s first League One objective, 19 years on from the final time they performed at that degree.
Whereas “icons” have come and gone, Cleworth has turn out to be the quiet heartbeat of the membership’s defensive evolution.
That course of continued within the January switch window with the arrival of Zak Vyner, 28, from Bristol Metropolis, an skilled defender with greater than 260 Championship appearances, highlighting the extent Wrexham now function at – a far-cry from enjoying alongside semi-professionals on away days at Solihull.
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Iwan Roberts spoke extremely of latest recruit Vyner: “I’ve seen loads of him. He is massive, he is sturdy. He is a improbable skilled. Nice to work with, nice perspective. Desires to study, needs to enhance each day. Trains like he performs.”
Whereas Vokes added: “I feel it truly shocked me his age once I noticed it as a result of I’ve performed in opposition to him a lot of occasions. I’ve performed in opposition to him each at Burnley and Stoke when he was at Bristol Metropolis and Rotherham.
“He was all the time a centre-half that stood out for me to be excellent at Championship degree. It felt like he is been round for years. He is been enjoying at Bristol Metropolis since he was a younger lad. And people quantity of appearances at that degree are wonderful for a participant of solely 28.”
Vyner’s arrival offers competitors, but in addition a measure of Cleworth’s progress. As soon as the younger deputy, he’s now the one setting the requirements newcomers should attain.
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As Vokes famous, even within the Nationwide League the membership “all the time purchased gamers of the extent above”.
Ought to promotion comply with once more, one other “very busy summer time” awaits, with Premier League readiness the goal.
And Parkinson was of the identical opinion, saying: “Max is just like the group typically. In the event you stand nonetheless, somebody steps in and takes your home.
“So he is aware of that and that added little bit of stress for everyone within the group is essential. And, you understand, Max is the kind of lad who’ll maintain driving himself on.”
Cleworth does proceed to “drive on” and his sturdiness is outstanding. Having it seems he has positively not “been left behind”.
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He stands out as the final survivor of the pre-Hollywood period, however he’s no relic of those occasions, extra a core a part of what Wrexham have gotten.
As they push for a fourth consecutive promotion, Cleworth stands because the bridge between eras: from Solihull Moors, to St Mary’s, to the brink of the Premier League.
His story is woven into Wrexham’s rise and it appears removed from being over because the cameras of Hollywood watch on at this star’s persevering with rise.