NATIONAL LEAGUE IS WHERE THE NEW MONEY TALKS

OLLIE PALMER’S £300,000 move in the January transfer window from AFC Wimbledon barely received a nationwide mention amid the frenzied buying by the Premier League clubs.

But the fact that the 30-year-old striker swapped League One for the Vanarama National League and Wrexham did cause a stir further down football’s pyramid.

The largesse of owners Ryan Reynolds (below) and Rob McElhenney obviously helped with a contract close to £4,000 a week.

“We wanted to make a signing that would stop people in their tracks,” admitted

Wrexham executive director Humphrey Ker.

The Hollywood duo were happy to bankroll last month’s arrival of Palmer together with another two players snatched from the EFL, Callum McFadzean from Crewe and Burton Albion’s Tom O’Connor.

Half of the clubs in the

National League – including Wrexham – have experienced life in the EFL and a desperation to return has inflated the transfer market at level five in the game.

Investment is rife with the likes of Stockport – who were also able to persuade Dave Challinor to leave League Two Hartlepool in mid-season to become their manager – Chesterfield, Grimsby

Town and Notts County all bringing out the cheque book to entice players from the EFL.

And Scunthorpe boss Keith Hill was powerless to prevent promising winger Myles Hippolyte leave for Stockport.

He said: “He’s gone to a club that’s upwardly mobile. Some National League sides have bigger budgets than EFL clubs.”