“Welcome to Wrexham” (2022)
A Hollywood feel good story.
A Hollywood feel good story.
On 10th April 2023, Wrexham faced Notts County at their storied “Racecourse Ground” and oldest original football ground in the world. It wasn’t quite, but it was almost a de-facto winner takes all leap from the National League back into League Two and, more importantly, the fourth tier of the English football pyramid that had, until recent years, seen both of their rich history and storied presence. Wrexham won 3–2 in a come from behind victory that made them odds on favourites to take the Title and the only immediate promotion spot in a season whereby both they and Notts County had swept all before them to dominate the league to such an extent that it was always either the North Wales team or the team from Nottingham that would grab that prized passage back into the professional league “pyramid”.
Twelve days later, and after a 0–0 draw away at Barnet and a 3–0 home victory over Yeovil Town, Wrexham, once again in front of the live television cameras of BT Sport secured yet another come from behind victory, this time against Boreham Wood, and their 3–1 win ensured they had won the National League with a record setting and quite astonishing points total of 111, suffering only 3 defeats in the process and with an incredible goal difference of +73.
After 15 long years in the fifth tier of English football, Wrexham were finally back in the upper echelons of what used to be called “The Football League”.
But this only tells a small part of the Hollywood tale unfolding and, dear reader, you won’t see any of this in season one of Welcome to Wrexham.
All of the above was for the future or, at the time of writing, the very recent past. After an incredible tussle between themselves and Notts County whereby both teams secured record smashing points totals over a hundred, well over 20 points clear of their nearest challengers in 3rd place and with both teams only suffering 3 league defeats all season, the team from North Wales won the National League by 4 points, their supporters could dream of playing in the football league once more and Ryan Reynolds (he of Deadpool fame) and Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) had the Hollywood ending they no doubt dreamed of too.
It’s clearly not the end and only the cliched end of the beginning as the co-chairmen and co-owners of Wrexham repeatedly state they are not only in this for the long term and as recently as yesterday (16th May 2023) were quoted as “not planning on getting bored” with their footballing passion project. This shines through in season one of the documentary but far, far more so is their love of a football team from North Wales and a world away from their American homes in Philadelphia and New York and even more importantly again is the story told away from the football pitch itself.
Wrexham may have been a struggling football team before the much publicised buying of the club by Reynolds and McElhenney and their failure to gain instant promotion in their first season as owners before this season’s Hollywood ending, but the endearing story that gripped and hooked me immediately was of the town itself and the fans and lifeblood of the club that, as we say here on this island of many nations, they follow passionately “through thick and thin” and for fifteen years, it’s been a thin time to be a fan of Wrexham.
I live 45 minutes away from Wrexham and the squiggly border that separates England and Wales in either a Great Britain, a United Kingdom or for me, more simply, just England. But as the television series points out, repeatedly, Wrexham is in Wales, a distinct country all of its own, and fiercely proud of that fact too. As are the fans of Wrexham who in 2004 faced the spectre of losing their club and their famous home to property speculators and disaster capitalists who only saw the potential for money rather than the central hub of the community. Fans rallied to pay the players wages, marched and refused to leave their storied home for over 150 years and via a fans trust took over ownership of their club, a repeated pattern that has seen nearby Chester and even my own hometown club of Portsmouth taking the same route in recent years.
Here is where the documentary series excels in the human stories of the fans and unpaid volunteers who ensured the football club they love didn’t die and wasn’t swept away on the tide of venture disaster capitalism greed, a fate that has befallen many, many others. Although season one doesn’t have the Hollywood ending that season two surely will, what you will see is a football club on the up, safe from the spectre of financial administration, their storied Racecourse Ground back in their hands and a ground and football club under redevelopment in the passionate hands of an American and a Canadian and the newest members of the Wrexham community alongside the fans and volunteers who refused to let their football club wither and die.
That’s the Hollywood ending right there.
Thanks for reading. A cave of wonders awaits you within my archives here or alternatively, here are my three most recent releases within the “Television” section:
Graham Hancock and the “most dangerous show on Netflix”
Ancient apocalypse and historical amnesia.medium.com
“Des” (2020)
Still portrait of an “unremarkable” serial killer.medium.com
“Spector” (2022)
Madness in the mansion on the hill.medium.com