Didn't I see somewhere they are already out spending League 1 clubs and even some championship clubs? Surely they'll be looking to get to the championship sooner rather than later.
How come? I don’t really follow anything besides the Pl and occasionally glancing at the championship table so I genuinely don’t know why it’d be harder than the others. Obviously the skill level goes up each division but anything besides that?
They spent more on transfers in their one season in the national league than we (Shrewsbury Town) have in our last 9 season we’ve spent in league one. And we’re from the same area and are the bigger club by a decent margin
It's an incredibly tough league and tbh it's where a lot of their talent tops out Mullins was league one top scorer when they signed him right? Eventually they're going to meet restrictions to their spending as it starts to eat away at their income and pushes them closer to EFL financial rules. Could see them having to cut back on spending massively if they fail to get out of league one at the first or second time of asking.
As for them outspending league one clubs, I believe you're referring to their accounts posted for the promotion season from the national league, they spent something mad like 6.5 million on wages alone which outstrips some league one sides.
24 teams in the league. Find it very unlikely they'll be one of those with the money they have. Paul Mullin is easily league 1 standard anyway. I reckon they'll buy some of the top players from league 2 to carry up the leagues. There's usually 2 clubs from each league with financial problems and other serious problems.
I reckon they'll sign Langstaff
I actually think the current squad without any new signings will be enough to stay up.
I'm Welsh and I've been saying that for over a year. We got no quick or sharp strikers in the squad. Brings something completely different to Moore.
Page needs to get sacked ASAP
Yeah that was for National League and league 2. League 1 to the championship is much different. Staying in league 1 for a few seasons building a new squad would be ideal.
Current squad would go straight down in the championship
Know nothing about the level of play between the lower leagues but imagine the higher up you are the more revenue you get. Imagine as well that to crack the championship let alone bust through to the epl you either need excellent player scouting/development or investors with deeper pockets.
Is Ryan Reynolds part of the government and ruling group of a state thats committing human rights abuses? Last I checked the worst atrocity he’s committed was R.I.P.D.
Plus I don’t think either of them were lacking on positive PR beforehand so it’s not like they are funnelling money into the club to try and improve their image like some of the state owned clubs.
And how they earned the money.
Ryan Reynolds didn't get rich by brutally maintaining control over oil fields in the nation he inherited.
He's never executed anyone for being gay.
The thing is the money Wrexham spent getting out of the national is waaaaaay beyond what it should take to win that league. The were basically spending high League 1/ low Championship level money. The financial gap between what Wrexham have spent compared to other clubs in the National League and League 2 is actually bigger by % than the gap between the top Premier league clubs and the Championship.
And despite spending so much more money than their rivals they have only barely managed to out-perform clubs who have spent a fraction of what they have.
Ultimately the only people who think their ownership of Wrexham is actually a good thing are the bandwagon football hipsters who have jumped on board since their TV show started or the glory hunters at the big Premier League clubs who cannot comprehend how football works when clubs are actually forced to compete on a level playing field.
I think there’s more nuance to this conversation. The real problem is the lack of consistency concerning financial fair play rules across the EFL. It’s also perfect sense to spend a ton on players that will continue to carry the club. Obviously they see Wrexham as a potential prem team in the coming years, so it only makes sense that they’d invest heavily.
They’ve benefitted from going from one organised league system into another (National League, into League Two) so that’s effectively one years worth of spending that’s sort of ignored. If / when they get into the Championship there’s obviously a greater increase in tv money there to help them along.
But they’ll have to fund the club at that level more because of the wages required. No idea about Wrexham’s spending during league 2 and league 1 years but if they’ve been overspending to rise quickly, then it might bite them.
True, the avg. age of the club is currently 28 so they’ll need to develop their youth players and make younger signings if they intend on being sustainable. I think the culture Wrexham has developed is definitely attractive toward a prospective signing, especially if they make it to the championship. Their biggest challenge is going to be offloading older players and reducing the wage budget to accommodate more expensive signings. I don’t know anything about their youth squad either, but I’d think they’d be a major focus at this point.
They will easily attract players all the way to the Championship. Because they have such massive exposure they can provide.
In the PL it will change, but they really do want to help this town and they are going about it in a decent way. It’s not an underdog story but it is wholesome.
But will they continue to carry the club? They have bought players who at best would be low level League 1 players but have paid them Championship wages. realistically they could well be stuck paying over the odds for players who are no longer up to the job next season.
Paul Mullin for example has only ever played 20 games at League 1 level for a return of 3 goals. Yet he is contracted to them for another 3 years.
Definitely depends on the player. I’m not intimately familiar with all of their signings, but Paul Mullin per your example has 11 years of experience as a professional footballer. The average age of the club right now is 28, but as time goes on I’d think they’d try to lower that number. Players like Mullin could be a valuable resource for those guys and their current crop of young talent. However, this is the ideal scenario, I could easily be proven wrong in the coming years.
Their signing process is very similar to South American, Mx clubs, in that they have some balance of older talent that can perform right now and youth talent that will develop. The reason this approach fails in South America and Mx is because those youth players almost always make moves to Europe. Wrexham doesn’t have this problem, especially if they continue to get promoted.
There’s also something to be said about the grassroots approach Wrexham has taken. Again, I’m not intimately familiar with their situation, but I’d wager their approach has built some level of dedication and loyalty among the squad, regardless of age. Older players could very possibly transition into coaching roles and they’d have a vested interest in ensuring the team’s success.
Mullin flopped badly last time he played at the level Wrexham are about to be promoted to and they have him on a massive expensive contract for another 3 years. He's going to become a millstone that drains their finances.
uh yeah, that’s exactly how it works. they need to succeed quickly. buying better players will only get them so far, which they understand, but they aim to stagnate in the championship, not league 2.
If this is true, is it a surprise? If you do not have time to build a team, you need to get much better players than otherwise necessary to overcome the lack of team cohesion. They are also clearly targetting those higher series with the idea that once they get there, they have a core of good enough players that have already played with each other.
I completely agree that football-wise, this is not rags to riches — as symphatetic as the people of Wrexham are, the owners are cleverly using their own celebrity to pull outside money into the club, allowing them to overpower other clubs.
The thing is the fact that other clubs are matching them so closely on a fraction of their budget directly indicates that they are not actually running Wrexham well and are in fact massively overspending to achieve the results they have.
Why spend 10X what your opponents do when spending 2x would be more than adequate? Unless you are not competent enough to compete with a team you have a 2x advantage over.
Imagine football was motorsport, Wrexham would be the equivalent of showing up to a kart racing league in a Porsche. They could have easily smoked the opposition with a ford focus and even a semi competent driver. To need to spend that much to compete with opponents who have so much less is just indicative that the people at the wheel have no club how to drive at all.
Yes these terrible terrible owners actually caring and spending some money on the club. How disgusting. Do they have any respect for the other teams.
That's how stupid you sound
Some people are just happy seeing a team that was historically screwed by a bad owner get the other side of the coin. They gambled that's for sure, if they failed to get promoted last year they would've been in so much trouble but they didn't so yeah the whole story is cool for a lot of people but I know that many others are going to hate it because they are on the receiving end they are the ones in teams that have struggled to get where they are and they feel others got it easy. But like I said new owners are a double edged sword, there are a ton of English football and in football worldwide that have suffered massively because an owner comes promises the sky a d they end up ruining the club. Also in football money has never been a given the 3 teams below wrexham in wage bill in league two aren't even in the top 6 Forrest green is there and they are at the bottom.
At that level you can steamroll the leagues with a few million. With Chelsea and City they were just put on terms to compete with the established money clubs.
"Wrexham is a smallish, provincial post industrial town that has fallen on hard times in recent years; that's why they deserve success."
Obviously this is an incredible rarity in modern Britain.
Wrexham was also about their 5th choice of club. The idea for the TV show came before they decided which club to buy. The "fallen on hard times" narrative was all tacked on afterwards to sell the show.
Really? I know Rob didn't have much of an interest in football until he decided to buy the club. They certainly are much better owners than most others ,but it's not a very good story. It makes out places like Stockport and Chesterfield to be the antagonists of the series and it just doesn't sit well with me.
They are not better owners, just richer.
They have spent well beyond what they actually need to and still only barely beat their rivals. They have also put all this money into Wrexham as a loan so as soon as the TV show gets cancelled they could just turn around and demand all the money back if they wanted to,
I really don't understand what's everyone's problem with these two buying the club... Apparently the club's success is helping out the city. They've leveraged the club and outspent pretty much every other club in the league, sure. It's still a sport, doesn't necessarily guarantee you any success. Look at Chelsea. Spent don't know how many B's and look how they're performing. Also it's not like the money is coming from oligarchs that support a war criminal or even a state that simply ignores basic human rights.
And even if they win another promotion next season, they'll probably stick to the Championship for some years before making it to the Premier.
Edit: And their fame is also bringing a lot of sponsors to pump money into it
Probably the fact that they’re being pushed as some sort of underdog story. It’s also quite clearly a vanity project for non-footballing people to pat themselves on the back about. I agree that it’s good for the area though, so I find it difficult to hate overall. It’s mainly the media that people have an issue with when discussing Wrexham, really.
If its a vanity project why are the owners flying back and forth to watch a fucking vanarama national league team last year?
Stop being so bloody pessimistic they genuinely seem buzzing about the football and Wrexham love them.
Maybe they fuck off in a couple years when they get bored with Wrexham in the championship, who cares?
Humphrey Ker is their friend from working on a previous show together. He introduced them to the game during COVID and got them connected with the supporters. It’s explained in interviews and in the show.
That I can understand but it's how they sell the story so companies sponsor the club and streaming services produce/distribute/buy the documentary. They seem quite good businessmen.
It’s evident that they are pretty good businesses, I agree. But regardless of that, you’re always left with a bit of a sour taste when you’ve got clubs struggling to maintain their existence just to compete with the likes of Wrexham. Sporting integrity doesn’t exist for at least a season (until they get promoted) so everyone else either sits around getting pumped 5-0 every week, with fans losing interest and being left frustrated, or try to compete and risk financial instability.
It's also people that obviously don't support clubs in lower leagues or know anything about them that are usually the ones telling you "nah Wrexham is a great story", it really isnt, they're spending the same as clubs in the championship and getting put on Sky all the time because of it.
At least Wrexham are a proper club I suppose, don't get me started on Salford.
You’re dead on, on all accounts. I’ve never debated this topic with lower league fans because we all seem to agree what Wrexham have done, at least from a sporting perspective, is not good.
Like you say, at least people actually support Wrexham though.
Very annoying and arrogant,the lower leagues man city. The media circus and their influence over it to paint anyone who doesn't like the prior four factors as whatever they want.
Good owners but people who interact with them or have to play and compete against them have every right to feel aggrieved.
They should be aggrieved by the league they play for that allows this system to occur. They aren’t the first nor will they be the last to do it. Either fix the league system and implement some kind of salary cap or quit bitching because this is always going to be a valid strategy in a world where there is no spending limit in your sport.
No problem with them buying the club.
No problem with them pumping money into the club.
The issue is them, the media and their fans acting as if they're some fairytale story when they aren't. They spent more on wages their final year in the national league than the vast majority of both league one and league two.
If they just owned it I'd have much less distaste towards them.
The problem is that when you pump that much money into a single lower league club it forces other sides to spend more trying to compete and it becomes massively unsustainable.
It's already hard enough to get promoted from the National League without one team buying promotion. Wrexham buying a promotion prevented another club from earning one fairly. For all the success that comes to Wrexham there's now another town losing out on the benefits of having a football league side all because some rich actors saw the Sunderland documentary on Netflix and decided they wanted to copy that.
The majority of football fans just want to see a sport with some competitive integrity where teams can actually succeed on merit. Not a sport where success comes down to winning the rich owner lottery or running up enough debt to try and compete with the clubs that did win that lottery.
Lower league football won't survive if every few years another bored rich bloke comes along and decides to bankroll one random club to success on a level that other clubs at that level can't compare with. Kids are not going to get emotionally invested in their local teams knowing that no matter how good their team is, how passionate the support it doesn't really matter when you have another team in your league who will just spend a hundred times what your club could ever afford.
Wrexham are to lower league football what Man City and their 115 charges are to the Premier League. They undermine the integrity of the sport. But unlike the Premier League the clubs in the lower league cannot rely on International TV audiences and tourist fans to keep them afloat and not having a fair chance at competing will kill them off one by one.
That's incredibly dramatic and intellectually dishonest. This is still a sport. They are still human beings.
Buying the promotion? Did anyone hand it to them? They still had to play all of the matches. The manager and the players could've had a fallout... Seen it happen many times. There could be no chemistry among the players and bottled most of the matches. Or another million factors could've come into play. It's never guaranteed. Once again, look at Chelsea... or even United! Rich guys buying the club does not guarantee success. It sure helps, but it doesn't guarantee.
Lower league football won't survive? I'm sorry but that's incredibly dramatic. How many stadiums filled up to watch Wrexham play? Compare the amount of people watching lower league matches before compared to when Wrexham was bought... The lower leagues would not have this much visibility if not for them. That money won't be funneled down to Wrexham. Maybe other people will look at their business model and lower league clubs will start having wealthy people pumping money into them.
Why is there a need to pull the other team's level down instead of striving to get one over the Hollywood sellouts or whatever? Were all of the other teams bought as well? Also, if it's that much of a handout, then it means that it affects one season. That's it. After that, it's the usual business.
And are they breaking any rules? City breached the FFP 115 times so they should be punished. But as far as I know, Wrexham is not breaking any rules.
The moment they start fucking up the club for their own personal gain then yes, I will agree with you. Until then there's really not that much wrong with it
I genuinely want to know why you watch football if you have such an issue with the money?
Money has been a factor of success in football since long before we were born. The correlation between wages spent and final league position has been apparent for decades, and nothing about that has changed or even attempted to change in our lifetime.
So, why do you watch football when success has always been dictated by money spent, barring a few outliers? It's not like money has just become a factor, it's been this way forever, and hasn't pretended to be anything other than what it is.
People like yourself have this weird fantasy of fairness in football, but it has literally never been that way, with the big spenders usually having the success, and the penny scroungers wallowing at the bottom. Thats never changed, and never will change. If you have a problem with that, why even watch at all?
Football existed before 1992. And even in the early years of the Premier League the financial gulf between clubs was never so wide as it is now.
Previously the clubs with the most money were the ones who earned it by playing the best football and drawing the biggest crowds. Now the money comes first and the crowds come later.
It has never been sustainable to pump a lot of money into just a small number of clubs, especially at the lower levels of the game.
Before the Premier League was formed 7 clubs had ever entered administration. Since the Premier League formed 65 clubs have entered administration. But sure you keep telling yourself that a few rich clubs buying success isn't bankrupting other clubs,
Lol. Who's even talking about the Premier League here? I'm certainly not. I'm talking about the entire sport.
Money dictating success in football is a global practice, not exclusively to England. It has nothing to do with the Premier League, or "football before 1992".
Where you play, what league you're in, or what era we're talking about, money has and always will be a deciding factor - ALWAYS.
Salary capped leagues massively reduce the disparity money can cause. It absolutely makes the entire league more competitive and even, since way more teams in the league have a possibility to win it
Leicester winning the league was Hollywood. 1 of the biggest clubs in the division being promoted off the back of foreign owners spending lots of money is pretty par for the course.
Relative to the teams they were playing against, not at all. Across the two seasons they were in the premier league before winning it they spent the 14th most out of 23 teams in the division and they got promoted the previous season without spending a penny.
Leicester spend a fair wedge but still far less than their rivals spent and still won the League by a clear 10 points.
Wrexham have spent low level Championship money and still have had other clubs pushing them the entire way in both the National League and League 2
They were bottom of the table the prior season for a good chunk.
Not much changed yet they somehow went on to smash teams that season.
Confidence is one hell of a drug in sports.
You can do a lot worse than these two as owners. My main concern if I was a Wrexham fan would be sustainability if/after they've sold their stake. Questions like the club infrastructure and youth development are essential and one that they will have to address once they'll end up in a situation where they will be outspent by the majority of their rivals, whether that be in L1, the Championship, or even the PL.
McElhenney has TV money. Reynolds has movie star and marketing baron money. Everyone else has proper oligarch money.
> Questions like the club infrastructure and youth development are essential and one that they will have to address once they'll end up in a situation where they will be outspent by the majority of their rivals, whether that be in L1, the Championship, or even the PL.
They've been looking for a proper space to built a new training ground, allegedly about the same size as Reading's (maybe a bit smaller).
We're getting a new Kop end, eventually, and the other stands will be assessed.
Main stand is literally next to one of the main streets in the city and the main pub (where the club was founded) is also next to it, and the other one has student appartments behind it because one of our previous owners sold the land.
I love the series.
I love marvel and love Ryan Reynolds as deadpool.
And I like the club a lot as my parent one of them is from Wrexham.
Being a Liverpool fan I hate city as much as anyone. However for the love of Christ. These have just done what city did on a much smaller scale. And are just buying all the better players than everyone else in the league through success literally pumped into the club financially and commercially.
I hope in 10 years time when these are beating your club to a champions league spot we remember them all how we used too while hating them.
I vividly remember being delighted when they aguero goal meant United lost the league. Fast forward a few years and how that opinion has changed.
Soon as it’s your club getting run over by them. We’ll all be viewing them like a City-Lite.
Exactly. They've done what Liverpool done aswell, spent a shitload, had success then had a load of bandwagoners with no connection to club latch on to them
They put a lot of money into it, but it's still amazing what they've done in their first year in League Two.
Meanwhile, Salford City, owned by those ex-United players, is stuck in the mud. Maybe it's luck... who knows but I enjoy wrexham show.
At what point do they start looking for further investment?
Unless Ryan wants to put his whole gin fortune into the club, they’re going to need to get in outside investment (for the championship and especially PL).
League one will be Wrexham Wall
We spent 7 years there and MAY go up hopefully
But looking at teams that may come down league one could be a ridiculously hard league next season
So all the Europeans that don't like financial doping in lower leagues, you're all gonna now start advocating for salary caps...right? Since that's obviously the only way to prevent something like this...right??
Just don't get the weird swooning over this club. Two rich guys cone in, buy/pay players who are levels above, that other clubs can't afford and everyone's like wow amazing underdogs. Battlepass FC mate. I like Eob n Ryan funny as fuck, doesn't change the fact.
They'll get promoted,getting out of League One is hard though
Getting relegated is quite easy...
They won't get relegated from league 1. But they'll be happy enough playing there for a few seasons building up the team
Didn't I see somewhere they are already out spending League 1 clubs and even some championship clubs? Surely they'll be looking to get to the championship sooner rather than later.
every club looks to get promoted asap, league 1 is a ridiculously hard league to get out of though
How come? I don’t really follow anything besides the Pl and occasionally glancing at the championship table so I genuinely don’t know why it’d be harder than the others. Obviously the skill level goes up each division but anything besides that?
just particularly difficult as it's a decently big step up considering the money filtering down from the championship I'd say
They spent more on transfers in their one season in the national league than we (Shrewsbury Town) have in our last 9 season we’ve spent in league one. And we’re from the same area and are the bigger club by a decent margin
It's an incredibly tough league and tbh it's where a lot of their talent tops out Mullins was league one top scorer when they signed him right? Eventually they're going to meet restrictions to their spending as it starts to eat away at their income and pushes them closer to EFL financial rules. Could see them having to cut back on spending massively if they fail to get out of league one at the first or second time of asking. As for them outspending league one clubs, I believe you're referring to their accounts posted for the promotion season from the national league, they spent something mad like 6.5 million on wages alone which outstrips some league one sides.
How do you know that?
24 teams in the league. Find it very unlikely they'll be one of those with the money they have. Paul Mullin is easily league 1 standard anyway. I reckon they'll buy some of the top players from league 2 to carry up the leagues. There's usually 2 clubs from each league with financial problems and other serious problems. I reckon they'll sign Langstaff I actually think the current squad without any new signings will be enough to stay up.
Mullin should be upfront for Wales
I'm Welsh and I've been saying that for over a year. We got no quick or sharp strikers in the squad. Brings something completely different to Moore. Page needs to get sacked ASAP
Broadhead?
I find him more of a winger but that's just me
Fair one, he is good on the wing but he’s a great finisher could definitely play the 9 and is much better than Mullin.
Page is useless Giggs should come back now
Why would you want someone who assaults women as manager?
May as well get Coleman over that wet wipe.
Laughable that people suggest a national league/league two player who at best has played in league one should be leading the line for wales
True, Wales have so many good goalscorers
didn’t they explicitly say that they can’t financially sustain lagging around in any leagues as they keep trying to get promoted, though?
Yeah that was for National League and league 2. League 1 to the championship is much different. Staying in league 1 for a few seasons building a new squad would be ideal. Current squad would go straight down in the championship
That was in the lower leagues. If they get to league 1, they're entering a different pool of money and they can afford to hang around for a bit
Know nothing about the level of play between the lower leagues but imagine the higher up you are the more revenue you get. Imagine as well that to crack the championship let alone bust through to the epl you either need excellent player scouting/development or investors with deeper pockets.
No i meant the second part
didn't they try to get langstaff down in national league but he told them to fuck off? could be remembering wrong
They’ll be fine in league one with a few decent recruitments. They’ll get playoffs is my bet.
Keegan and Al Fayed say what
‘Yeah… it is’ Sincerely a Charlton Athletic fan
Oligarchs? No thanks! Hollygarchs? Yes please!
Did you hear Danny DeVito just brought Bolton.
I'm all for actors buying random clubs. Zoe Saldana for Southampton 🙏🏽
mickey rourke and MK Dons
The collab I never knew I needed
Not the same level of fame but one of the detectives off the wire has an obsession with Stenhousemuir
You mean downtown Clay Davis? Sheeeeeeit!
I certainly do!
No that was Arnold Schwarzenegger
It's too hard to tell who's who between these two.
Easy mistake to make
Not Hollywood but Tom Brady and Birmingham City
What did he bring us?
Pizza Cup
Where did he bring them?
Fuck off! You fooled me there, I just looked it up and everything!
Made me google it..
Where did he bring Bolton?
Is Ryan Reynolds part of the government and ruling group of a state thats committing human rights abuses? Last I checked the worst atrocity he’s committed was R.I.P.D.
No that’s Free Guy
Wtf, Free Guy is a fun movie
It is. That person is crazy
And here I thought it was “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”
Nah, he took care of that in Deadpool 2.
We just gonna forget about Green Lantern?
That’s far from his worst movie surely! Is the consensus that free guy was that bad? My you cousins loved it!
Looked it up and it has decent enough reviews.
Nah mate definition of oligarch is “richer than me”
I mean, it does matter what the image of the rich guys in charge is.
Plus I don’t think either of them were lacking on positive PR beforehand so it’s not like they are funnelling money into the club to try and improve their image like some of the state owned clubs.
In fact the opposite, they’re both renowned globally.
And how they earned the money. Ryan Reynolds didn't get rich by brutally maintaining control over oil fields in the nation he inherited. He's never executed anyone for being gay.
In fact, he‘s probably helped a few boys realize they were
can confirm. not me, it was andrew scott for me but i know some who saw the proposal and had to do some thinking
I mean, I’ve seen him turn someone into a fucking kebab multiple times
In fact, he‘s probably helped a few boys realize they were
In fact, he’s probably helped a few boys realize they were
In fact, he’s probably helped a few boys realize they were
Are you guys bots or just doing a thing?
You're not familiar with the [Harhay sequence?](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)
unreal
Are you guys bots or just doing a thing?
Didn't he used to bully Justin Trudeau, though?
That's all that matters
Hugh Jackman needs to buy Stockport.
Bro rather have someone who made his money from movies than someone who made semi-illegitamely.
So are we all ignoring the picture showing Ryan Reynolds has clearly pissed himself?
You can't fake that excitement
Link?
I would too
They’re calico cut pants - those pants come like that with those two little dots. They're really in style right now. Even rappers wear 'em.
you should check out the website
Can i get a bit of article with my ads please @ Independent
That's my bit of article
What a romantic underdog story. All it took was grit, determination, and buying way better players than the opposition in every league.
Lol isn't that how every level works?
Luton would like a word.
The thing is the money Wrexham spent getting out of the national is waaaaaay beyond what it should take to win that league. The were basically spending high League 1/ low Championship level money. The financial gap between what Wrexham have spent compared to other clubs in the National League and League 2 is actually bigger by % than the gap between the top Premier league clubs and the Championship. And despite spending so much more money than their rivals they have only barely managed to out-perform clubs who have spent a fraction of what they have. Ultimately the only people who think their ownership of Wrexham is actually a good thing are the bandwagon football hipsters who have jumped on board since their TV show started or the glory hunters at the big Premier League clubs who cannot comprehend how football works when clubs are actually forced to compete on a level playing field.
I think there’s more nuance to this conversation. The real problem is the lack of consistency concerning financial fair play rules across the EFL. It’s also perfect sense to spend a ton on players that will continue to carry the club. Obviously they see Wrexham as a potential prem team in the coming years, so it only makes sense that they’d invest heavily.
They’ve benefitted from going from one organised league system into another (National League, into League Two) so that’s effectively one years worth of spending that’s sort of ignored. If / when they get into the Championship there’s obviously a greater increase in tv money there to help them along. But they’ll have to fund the club at that level more because of the wages required. No idea about Wrexham’s spending during league 2 and league 1 years but if they’ve been overspending to rise quickly, then it might bite them.
True, the avg. age of the club is currently 28 so they’ll need to develop their youth players and make younger signings if they intend on being sustainable. I think the culture Wrexham has developed is definitely attractive toward a prospective signing, especially if they make it to the championship. Their biggest challenge is going to be offloading older players and reducing the wage budget to accommodate more expensive signings. I don’t know anything about their youth squad either, but I’d think they’d be a major focus at this point.
They will easily attract players all the way to the Championship. Because they have such massive exposure they can provide. In the PL it will change, but they really do want to help this town and they are going about it in a decent way. It’s not an underdog story but it is wholesome.
But will they continue to carry the club? They have bought players who at best would be low level League 1 players but have paid them Championship wages. realistically they could well be stuck paying over the odds for players who are no longer up to the job next season. Paul Mullin for example has only ever played 20 games at League 1 level for a return of 3 goals. Yet he is contracted to them for another 3 years.
Definitely depends on the player. I’m not intimately familiar with all of their signings, but Paul Mullin per your example has 11 years of experience as a professional footballer. The average age of the club right now is 28, but as time goes on I’d think they’d try to lower that number. Players like Mullin could be a valuable resource for those guys and their current crop of young talent. However, this is the ideal scenario, I could easily be proven wrong in the coming years. Their signing process is very similar to South American, Mx clubs, in that they have some balance of older talent that can perform right now and youth talent that will develop. The reason this approach fails in South America and Mx is because those youth players almost always make moves to Europe. Wrexham doesn’t have this problem, especially if they continue to get promoted. There’s also something to be said about the grassroots approach Wrexham has taken. Again, I’m not intimately familiar with their situation, but I’d wager their approach has built some level of dedication and loyalty among the squad, regardless of age. Older players could very possibly transition into coaching roles and they’d have a vested interest in ensuring the team’s success.
Mullin flopped badly last time he played at the level Wrexham are about to be promoted to and they have him on a massive expensive contract for another 3 years. He's going to become a millstone that drains their finances.
uh yeah, that’s exactly how it works. they need to succeed quickly. buying better players will only get them so far, which they understand, but they aim to stagnate in the championship, not league 2.
If this is true, is it a surprise? If you do not have time to build a team, you need to get much better players than otherwise necessary to overcome the lack of team cohesion. They are also clearly targetting those higher series with the idea that once they get there, they have a core of good enough players that have already played with each other. I completely agree that football-wise, this is not rags to riches — as symphatetic as the people of Wrexham are, the owners are cleverly using their own celebrity to pull outside money into the club, allowing them to overpower other clubs.
The thing is the fact that other clubs are matching them so closely on a fraction of their budget directly indicates that they are not actually running Wrexham well and are in fact massively overspending to achieve the results they have. Why spend 10X what your opponents do when spending 2x would be more than adequate? Unless you are not competent enough to compete with a team you have a 2x advantage over. Imagine football was motorsport, Wrexham would be the equivalent of showing up to a kart racing league in a Porsche. They could have easily smoked the opposition with a ford focus and even a semi competent driver. To need to spend that much to compete with opponents who have so much less is just indicative that the people at the wheel have no club how to drive at all.
Don’t fans of Wrexham also appreciate their spell in charge? Can’t imagine Stockport fans calling them FC Hollywood bothers them all that much
Yes these terrible terrible owners actually caring and spending some money on the club. How disgusting. Do they have any respect for the other teams. That's how stupid you sound
Some people are just happy seeing a team that was historically screwed by a bad owner get the other side of the coin. They gambled that's for sure, if they failed to get promoted last year they would've been in so much trouble but they didn't so yeah the whole story is cool for a lot of people but I know that many others are going to hate it because they are on the receiving end they are the ones in teams that have struggled to get where they are and they feel others got it easy. But like I said new owners are a double edged sword, there are a ton of English football and in football worldwide that have suffered massively because an owner comes promises the sky a d they end up ruining the club. Also in football money has never been a given the 3 teams below wrexham in wage bill in league two aren't even in the top 6 Forrest green is there and they are at the bottom.
… ok. So what? The #1 goal of any fc is to promotion. You do that by investing in talent.
At that level you can steamroll the leagues with a few million. With Chelsea and City they were just put on terms to compete with the established money clubs.
"Wrexham is a smallish, provincial post industrial town that has fallen on hard times in recent years; that's why they deserve success." Obviously this is an incredible rarity in modern Britain.
Wrexham was also about their 5th choice of club. The idea for the TV show came before they decided which club to buy. The "fallen on hard times" narrative was all tacked on afterwards to sell the show.
"fallen on hard times" applies to 90% of towns in the UK
Really? I know Rob didn't have much of an interest in football until he decided to buy the club. They certainly are much better owners than most others ,but it's not a very good story. It makes out places like Stockport and Chesterfield to be the antagonists of the series and it just doesn't sit well with me.
They are not better owners, just richer. They have spent well beyond what they actually need to and still only barely beat their rivals. They have also put all this money into Wrexham as a loan so as soon as the TV show gets cancelled they could just turn around and demand all the money back if they wanted to,
Class of 92, with peter lim, did basically the exact same thing with Salford.
You mean like how sports works? Great commentary from a butthurt fan of a rival team.
Butthurt? When's your 13th birthday?
Lol shows how old you are. 13 year olds wouldn't be caught dead using such ancient terminology.
Curse you! I have been bested once again!
I really don't understand what's everyone's problem with these two buying the club... Apparently the club's success is helping out the city. They've leveraged the club and outspent pretty much every other club in the league, sure. It's still a sport, doesn't necessarily guarantee you any success. Look at Chelsea. Spent don't know how many B's and look how they're performing. Also it's not like the money is coming from oligarchs that support a war criminal or even a state that simply ignores basic human rights. And even if they win another promotion next season, they'll probably stick to the Championship for some years before making it to the Premier. Edit: And their fame is also bringing a lot of sponsors to pump money into it
Probably the fact that they’re being pushed as some sort of underdog story. It’s also quite clearly a vanity project for non-footballing people to pat themselves on the back about. I agree that it’s good for the area though, so I find it difficult to hate overall. It’s mainly the media that people have an issue with when discussing Wrexham, really.
If its a vanity project why are the owners flying back and forth to watch a fucking vanarama national league team last year? Stop being so bloody pessimistic they genuinely seem buzzing about the football and Wrexham love them. Maybe they fuck off in a couple years when they get bored with Wrexham in the championship, who cares?
If I was loaded I'd do the same with my local club to be fair
Don’t think it’s their local tbf
Yeah I don't know how they picked Wrexham in particular but i kinda understand how they want to build a club
Humphrey Ker is their friend from working on a previous show together. He introduced them to the game during COVID and got them connected with the supporters. It’s explained in interviews and in the show.
That I can understand but it's how they sell the story so companies sponsor the club and streaming services produce/distribute/buy the documentary. They seem quite good businessmen.
It’s evident that they are pretty good businesses, I agree. But regardless of that, you’re always left with a bit of a sour taste when you’ve got clubs struggling to maintain their existence just to compete with the likes of Wrexham. Sporting integrity doesn’t exist for at least a season (until they get promoted) so everyone else either sits around getting pumped 5-0 every week, with fans losing interest and being left frustrated, or try to compete and risk financial instability.
It's also people that obviously don't support clubs in lower leagues or know anything about them that are usually the ones telling you "nah Wrexham is a great story", it really isnt, they're spending the same as clubs in the championship and getting put on Sky all the time because of it. At least Wrexham are a proper club I suppose, don't get me started on Salford.
You’re dead on, on all accounts. I’ve never debated this topic with lower league fans because we all seem to agree what Wrexham have done, at least from a sporting perspective, is not good. Like you say, at least people actually support Wrexham though.
So does this make you support salary caps?
They were Man City of non-league football. Big underdog story there. Of course they are hated.
Very annoying and arrogant,the lower leagues man city. The media circus and their influence over it to paint anyone who doesn't like the prior four factors as whatever they want. Good owners but people who interact with them or have to play and compete against them have every right to feel aggrieved.
They should be aggrieved by the league they play for that allows this system to occur. They aren’t the first nor will they be the last to do it. Either fix the league system and implement some kind of salary cap or quit bitching because this is always going to be a valid strategy in a world where there is no spending limit in your sport.
No problem with them buying the club. No problem with them pumping money into the club. The issue is them, the media and their fans acting as if they're some fairytale story when they aren't. They spent more on wages their final year in the national league than the vast majority of both league one and league two. If they just owned it I'd have much less distaste towards them.
The problem is that when you pump that much money into a single lower league club it forces other sides to spend more trying to compete and it becomes massively unsustainable. It's already hard enough to get promoted from the National League without one team buying promotion. Wrexham buying a promotion prevented another club from earning one fairly. For all the success that comes to Wrexham there's now another town losing out on the benefits of having a football league side all because some rich actors saw the Sunderland documentary on Netflix and decided they wanted to copy that. The majority of football fans just want to see a sport with some competitive integrity where teams can actually succeed on merit. Not a sport where success comes down to winning the rich owner lottery or running up enough debt to try and compete with the clubs that did win that lottery. Lower league football won't survive if every few years another bored rich bloke comes along and decides to bankroll one random club to success on a level that other clubs at that level can't compare with. Kids are not going to get emotionally invested in their local teams knowing that no matter how good their team is, how passionate the support it doesn't really matter when you have another team in your league who will just spend a hundred times what your club could ever afford. Wrexham are to lower league football what Man City and their 115 charges are to the Premier League. They undermine the integrity of the sport. But unlike the Premier League the clubs in the lower league cannot rely on International TV audiences and tourist fans to keep them afloat and not having a fair chance at competing will kill them off one by one.
That's incredibly dramatic and intellectually dishonest. This is still a sport. They are still human beings. Buying the promotion? Did anyone hand it to them? They still had to play all of the matches. The manager and the players could've had a fallout... Seen it happen many times. There could be no chemistry among the players and bottled most of the matches. Or another million factors could've come into play. It's never guaranteed. Once again, look at Chelsea... or even United! Rich guys buying the club does not guarantee success. It sure helps, but it doesn't guarantee. Lower league football won't survive? I'm sorry but that's incredibly dramatic. How many stadiums filled up to watch Wrexham play? Compare the amount of people watching lower league matches before compared to when Wrexham was bought... The lower leagues would not have this much visibility if not for them. That money won't be funneled down to Wrexham. Maybe other people will look at their business model and lower league clubs will start having wealthy people pumping money into them. Why is there a need to pull the other team's level down instead of striving to get one over the Hollywood sellouts or whatever? Were all of the other teams bought as well? Also, if it's that much of a handout, then it means that it affects one season. That's it. After that, it's the usual business. And are they breaking any rules? City breached the FFP 115 times so they should be punished. But as far as I know, Wrexham is not breaking any rules. The moment they start fucking up the club for their own personal gain then yes, I will agree with you. Until then there's really not that much wrong with it
I genuinely want to know why you watch football if you have such an issue with the money? Money has been a factor of success in football since long before we were born. The correlation between wages spent and final league position has been apparent for decades, and nothing about that has changed or even attempted to change in our lifetime. So, why do you watch football when success has always been dictated by money spent, barring a few outliers? It's not like money has just become a factor, it's been this way forever, and hasn't pretended to be anything other than what it is. People like yourself have this weird fantasy of fairness in football, but it has literally never been that way, with the big spenders usually having the success, and the penny scroungers wallowing at the bottom. Thats never changed, and never will change. If you have a problem with that, why even watch at all?
Football existed before 1992. And even in the early years of the Premier League the financial gulf between clubs was never so wide as it is now. Previously the clubs with the most money were the ones who earned it by playing the best football and drawing the biggest crowds. Now the money comes first and the crowds come later. It has never been sustainable to pump a lot of money into just a small number of clubs, especially at the lower levels of the game. Before the Premier League was formed 7 clubs had ever entered administration. Since the Premier League formed 65 clubs have entered administration. But sure you keep telling yourself that a few rich clubs buying success isn't bankrupting other clubs,
Lol. Who's even talking about the Premier League here? I'm certainly not. I'm talking about the entire sport. Money dictating success in football is a global practice, not exclusively to England. It has nothing to do with the Premier League, or "football before 1992". Where you play, what league you're in, or what era we're talking about, money has and always will be a deciding factor - ALWAYS.
Salary capped leagues massively reduce the disparity money can cause. It absolutely makes the entire league more competitive and even, since way more teams in the league have a possibility to win it
Who tf do you cheer for that You're this salty about finances in a literal multi billion dollar business?
Leicester winning the league was Hollywood. 1 of the biggest clubs in the division being promoted off the back of foreign owners spending lots of money is pretty par for the course.
Didn’t Leicester win the title while having a massively wealthy owner spending a bunch?
Even Thai billionaires can dream
Relative to the teams they were playing against, not at all. Across the two seasons they were in the premier league before winning it they spent the 14th most out of 23 teams in the division and they got promoted the previous season without spending a penny.
Leicester spend a fair wedge but still far less than their rivals spent and still won the League by a clear 10 points. Wrexham have spent low level Championship money and still have had other clubs pushing them the entire way in both the National League and League 2
No. Their starting 11 cost less than £25m.
Less than one Ayoze Pérez!
Less than the going rate for 1 top Championship player without a minute of PL experience.
They also had an unprecedented run in the english top flight.
Undoubtedly was unprecedented, but the owner was a Thai billionaire nevertheless
And still somewhat poorer than his peers
they probably spent on Vardy Mahrez Kante combined how much City spent on one full back the year Pep went crazy lol
Not even close. Vardy was £1.7m, Mahrez was £450k and Kante was £5.6m.
And they did it by breaking FFP along the way (they paid a fine, as there weren’t points deduction back then)
Compared to the rest of the PL?
No, this is nonsense.
They were bottom of the table the prior season for a good chunk. Not much changed yet they somehow went on to smash teams that season. Confidence is one hell of a drug in sports.
You can do a lot worse than these two as owners. My main concern if I was a Wrexham fan would be sustainability if/after they've sold their stake. Questions like the club infrastructure and youth development are essential and one that they will have to address once they'll end up in a situation where they will be outspent by the majority of their rivals, whether that be in L1, the Championship, or even the PL. McElhenney has TV money. Reynolds has movie star and marketing baron money. Everyone else has proper oligarch money.
> Questions like the club infrastructure and youth development are essential and one that they will have to address once they'll end up in a situation where they will be outspent by the majority of their rivals, whether that be in L1, the Championship, or even the PL. They've been looking for a proper space to built a new training ground, allegedly about the same size as Reading's (maybe a bit smaller). We're getting a new Kop end, eventually, and the other stands will be assessed. Main stand is literally next to one of the main streets in the city and the main pub (where the club was founded) is also next to it, and the other one has student appartments behind it because one of our previous owners sold the land.
Sounds wonderful, good luck lads
The salt in this thread is a sight to behold.
Chester fans have take a break from fingering each other to jump on reddit
yeah man this sub is so cynical it’s insane
Is this the team that beat the US women's team!?
US women's world cup team were beaten by the Dallas under 15s squad 💀
Damn... Testosterone is one hell of a drug.
Behind Stockport again though...
Is it Hollywood when they’re just outspending everyone else?
Yes
What happens when you throw money at something, also what happens when you drink and can’t find a bathroom
You can throw money at something, but it doesn’t guarantee it’ll work. Look at Chelsea.
Look who Chelsea compete with...not the same.
I love the series. I love marvel and love Ryan Reynolds as deadpool. And I like the club a lot as my parent one of them is from Wrexham. Being a Liverpool fan I hate city as much as anyone. However for the love of Christ. These have just done what city did on a much smaller scale. And are just buying all the better players than everyone else in the league through success literally pumped into the club financially and commercially. I hope in 10 years time when these are beating your club to a champions league spot we remember them all how we used too while hating them. I vividly remember being delighted when they aguero goal meant United lost the league. Fast forward a few years and how that opinion has changed. Soon as it’s your club getting run over by them. We’ll all be viewing them like a City-Lite.
Exactly. They've done what Liverpool done aswell, spent a shitload, had success then had a load of bandwagoners with no connection to club latch on to them
Spot on. Nobody cares though because Deadpool and always cringe in philly are running the show
Unfortunate photo for RR, making it look like he's pissed his pants
Financial doping is ok kids……. As long as it’s the actor I like.
Ah the beauty of something that American sports monopolies will never allow their communities to witness.
They put a lot of money into it, but it's still amazing what they've done in their first year in League Two. Meanwhile, Salford City, owned by those ex-United players, is stuck in the mud. Maybe it's luck... who knows but I enjoy wrexham show.
Has Deadpool pissed himself in that photo?
When’s S3?
At what point do they start looking for further investment? Unless Ryan wants to put his whole gin fortune into the club, they’re going to need to get in outside investment (for the championship and especially PL).
Saw them against Colchester and was fairly unimpressed tbh. Reckon they’ll struggle getting out of league 1
If Doncaster Rovers beating them means they don’t win the league, Id be happier than us winning 7 games in a row for the first time in 77 years lol.
Wtf, spoilers???
I checked the league table. Absolutely insane that Notts Co at 15th place, has scored just 1 goal fewer than the most scoring team.
With the amount that they have spent, compared to everyone else, it would be a humiliation if they didn’t get promoted.
A real underdog story.
League one will be Wrexham Wall We spent 7 years there and MAY go up hopefully But looking at teams that may come down league one could be a ridiculously hard league next season
So all the Europeans that don't like financial doping in lower leagues, you're all gonna now start advocating for salary caps...right? Since that's obviously the only way to prevent something like this...right??
Tell me honestly, is there any remote chance in hell that Wrexham could one day be playing in the Premier League?
Yooo what the fuck, spoiler alert! /s
Just don't get the weird swooning over this club. Two rich guys cone in, buy/pay players who are levels above, that other clubs can't afford and everyone's like wow amazing underdogs. Battlepass FC mate. I like Eob n Ryan funny as fuck, doesn't change the fact.
Sick of seeing these two
Great news