MARK CREIGHTON feels Wrexham are stuck in a catch-22 situation.

Creighton was affectionately nicknamed The Beast during his playing career, which included over 80 appearances for the Reds.

And the former central defender feels Wrexham are in a state of flux. The Reds, managed by Creighton’s former team-mate Dean Keates, are considered a Football League club given their history, facilities and fanbase, but they’ve spent the last 13 years in the National League.

Speaking to Matty Paddock, Creighton, pictured, said: “Wrexham are a massive, massive club, who are still unfortunately stuck in the National League. They don’t deserved to be there.

“It’s a catch-22.

“It is an ex-Football League club, it’s a huge, huge club, but at the moment they probably do deserve to be there because, at the end of the day, they haven’t got out.

“There’s been opportunities to and they haven’t quite managed to do it.

“We all hope that can change and they turn a corner, but I think the current climate will affect budget for next season, so it’s really hard.”

Creighton also believes that Keates will find it difficult to rebuild his Wrexham playing squad given the current climate.

“I can imagine for managers that it’s going to be super, super difficult to build any sort of squad because there is so much uncertainty out there,” he added.

“How do you prepare for next season? I wouldn’t like to be in the game now, that’s for sure.”

The 38-year-old also reserved special praise for Wrexham’s loyal fans, who despite enduring the worst season in the club’s history, still turned out in their numbers.

Only Notts County and Stockport County - both vying for promotion - averaged more home fans during the 2019/20 National League season than Wrexham’s impressive 4,057.

Creighton added: “I was blessed really to play for the clubs I did – Kidderminster, Oxford and Wrexham all had a really, really great fanbase and they were all passionate about their club. Wrexham fans were very, very similar to Oxford fans.

“Away games they would take a huge amount of people and you would often take over the home ground.”