When it comes to Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s takeover of Wrexham, I suspect English football fans have allowed themselves to be a little star-struck.

Why?

Because in reality there is very little difference between what those two are doing at Wrexham and what, say, Roman Abramovich did when he took over Chelsea. There may be a few less zeros on the end of Ryan and Rob’s investment, but the general idea is pretty much identical.

Yet the way the two sets of investors have been treated and viewed by those outside the involved clubs couldn’t be more different.

When Abramovich walked into town, splashing the millions in a bid to take the club to a new level, there was widespread uproar saying how unfair it all was. The general consensus was that Chelsea’s spending was tilting the playing field very much in their favour and distorting the entire league.

However, when the Hollywood legends took over Wrexham, the wider football world welcomed them with open arms, cheesy chants and autograph books. The actors were seen as saviours who had come riding to the rescue of a proud old club that had fallen on hard times. Their takeover has been treated by most fans and much of the media as a proper football fairy tale.

While in some ways that is all true, the reality is their investment in Wrexham has had very similar distorting effect on the National League to the one Abramovich’s had on the Premier League.

The Welsh club was relegated from League Two in 2009 and has been languishing in non-league limbo ever since. However, thanks to the millions pumped in by Reynolds and McElhenny, they have been reborn and now have a team capable of competing at a much higher level.

Their two main forwards are fast closing in on a half-century of goals between them this season, which is not surprising considering they are extremely talented individuals who dropped down the leagues to join the Hollywood dream.

One of them, Paul Mullin, is believed to be on £4,500 a week, the highest salary in the entire National League, while the other, Ollie Palmer, moved down all the way from League One AFC Wimbledon, in a transfer worth £300,000, a massive fee in the non-league world.

Wrexham’s manager Phil Parkinson has vast experience, including a couple of promotions with Colchester United and Bolton Wanderers, and a memorable run to the League Cup final when in charge of Bradford City. There is no way someone of his calibre would have joined a National League club if it didn’t come with celebrity owners.

Wrexham have also seen substantial investment in their ground and facilities, including everything from a fully upgraded gym to new pitches being laid. A brand new stand is also being built at the Racecourse Ground to accommodate the thousands of fans who have suddenly remembered they love the club.

The story gets even sexier when you throw in this season’s incredible FA Cup run that only came to an end last week when Sheffield United finally overcame opponents whose performances made an absolute mockery of the three-division gap between them.

Since the takeover, Wrexham’s social media accounts have grown by a million followers, and their main shirt sponsors are now TikTok. None of that happens without Deadpool’s connections.

Since the takeover, Wrexham’s social media accounts have grown by a million followers, and their main shirt sponsors are now TikTok. None of that happens without Deadpool’s connections

Of course it sounds like a fairy tale that could easily have been written by Hollywood scriptwriters. And I can see why the average neutral fan is watching everything unfold in Wales with interest rather than derision.

But what about if you support Notts County, Woking, Chesterfield or Barnet? How would you feel then if you had to watch millionaire backers take over a rival, knowing they would be spending their way to promotion sooner rather than later?

That’s especially hard to take considering there is only one automatic promotion place to League Two, which makes it the toughest of all leagues to get out of.

At the time of writing, Wrexham are second in the table, three points behind Notts County with two games in hand, and only an idiot would bet against them securing promotion this season.

And that will conclude the first chapter.

But League Two should be scared, because this is a footballing juggernaut that is unlikely to be stopped until it reaches the top of the pyramid.

Again, I am not judging them, and in no way saying what is happening is wrong. In fact, I am watching Wrexham’s progress with interest and intrigue because it really is an entertaining story.

But let’s make sure we don’t let the fame surrounding Ryan and Rob mask the reality that what they are doing is very similar to what rich owners in the Premier League have been doing over the years to widespread anger and despair.

Just because they are starting lower down and just because they may have prettier faces, it doesn’t change that reality.

 

Was Ole undermined?

Here’s a little something for Manchester United fans (*) to chew over: could Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have actually built something decent at Old Trafford if he hadn’t been hampered by Paul Pogba and Cristiano Ronaldo?

This season, with those two players out of the way, performances have drastically improved. Now that could be down to new signings. It could be down to the new manager. It could be down to better training or improved tactics.

But I suspect a lot of it is down to Paul and Cristiano taking their moody superiority complexes elsewhere.

With Eric ten Hag in charge, United have looked much more like a team again, as opposed to the collection of individuals that took to the pitch under both Ole and Ralf Ragnick.

Again, I could be misreading this, and the improvement could be down to Eric’s man-management genius. But I bet you it has just as much, if not more to do with the club being a happier and more harmonious place without two players whose egos required their own seats in the dressing room.

Let’s not forget that Solskjaer guided United to back-to-back top-four finishes for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired and a runners-up slot in 2021. Not exactly a disastrous record.

I can’t help wondering what the Norwegian might have been able to achieve without that particularly poisonous duo undermining him on a daily basis.

I guess we will never know.

 

(*) Fans of other clubs are more than welcome to ponder it too.

 

E-mail: James@quizando.com

Twitter: @maltablade