SHAUN HARVEY did not expect to spend a second January transfer window at Wrexham trying to finalise deals for new signings.

The 51-year-old, former chief executive at the Football League, was brought in as an advisor by Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds before the Hollywood stars completed their high profile takeover at The Racecourse last February.

Eleven months on and Harvey is looking to land transfer targets to give the Reds' promotion challenge a boost, but he admitted: "I have been here longer than I envisaged.

"Rob and Ryan's ownership started on February 9 but a lot of work went on before then that people didn't see.

"The key was getting the deal done for Rob and Ryan, and getting the deal done for the fans of the club, and who was involved putting it together was irrelevant.

"We got to this wonderful position with the deal completed and then it was a case of 'well, can you help with this?' because they couldn't get here because of Covid restrictions.

"It grew and grew, and I am sat here in 2022 in the middle of a January transfer window when I am on record as saying at the end of the last January transfer window, that I would never do it again."

Wrexham are yet to complete any new signings so far this month.

Harvey, who landed the likes of Paul Mullin and Ben Tozer last summer, added: "No deal is easy. There has got to be a willing buyer, a willing seller and a willing player, or a willing buyer and a willing player if the player is coming on a free transfer.

"They all take the same amount of time and effort, it is just a case of how quickly you get to the end result.

"There are challenges and the challenges to a certain extent come around managing fan expectation.

"There is this instant desire for everything to happen now and it doesn't work that way, you do have to take the time to get the deals right and we have walked away from deals because they are not right.

"You only ever get judged on what you missed out on that would have made you better, not what you protected yourself from."