THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (WELCOME TO WREXHAM)

 

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The story of Wrexham AFC is extraordinary even by British football's standards.

Established in 1864, it is the oldest professional club in Wales and the third oldest in the world.

Based in North Wales, the Racecourse ground is the oldest international stadium in the world.

Over the years, the club has captured 23 Welsh Cups, a Football League Trophy, five FAW Premier Cups, a FA Trophy and has also played in the European Cup Winners Cup.

However Wrexham has also had plenty of setbacks.

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In the 21st Century, Wrexham AFC has faced a major existential threat - being plunged into administration, having points docked and going into a spiral of relegation that took them from Division One down to the National League.

Its former chairman Alex Hamilton tried to sell the Racecourse to developers.

There was a fan revolt, with supporters picketing Hamilton's home as he tried to get the club evicted from the ground.

Eventually, Hamilton was forced through fan pressure to back down and he ceded control of the club.

However in 2020, Wrexham's story took another extraordinary twist when the Hollywood actors, Rob McElhenney and 'Deadpool' star Ryan Reynolds purchased the club.

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FX's 18 part docuseries' 'Welcome to Wrexham' examines the takeover by the Hollywood stars and their efforts to get Wrexham back to the bigger leagues.

It's an oddly romantic story of two celebrities, with no connection whatsoever to the North Wales city, pouring millions into a club to restore Wrexham to its former glory.

Unlike Amazon Prime's 'All or Nothing' series about Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal or Netflix's 'Sunderland 'Til I Die,' it doesn't merely chronicle the ups and downs experienced by management and players over the course of the season.

For 'Welcome to Wrexham' is much more than that.

It is more interested in the symbiotic relationship between club and its community.

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The show explores how both feed off each other.

So why Wrexham?

The first episode sets out to answer that question with Rob McElhenney the main driving force behind the takeover.

A Philadelphia Eagles American football fan, he immediately sees parallels between the passion of Wrexham fans for their club and his own city's devotion to its NFL team.

Both communities have working class fanbases who have watched their cities suffer following the decline of the steel industry.

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Sport has been a refuge and an important badge of identity for both Wrexham and Philadelphia.

However 'Welcome to Wrexham' also examines male bonding.

The 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphis' star turns to Reynolds as a partner after the two of them formed an intense friendship triggered during lockdown by the film star contacting the sitcom star after watching an episode of the comedy that really resonated with him.

The bond between McElhenney and Reynolds is intense. 

And while McElhenney's affection for the club is born out of personal experience, Reynolds simply goes along for the ride but his commitment to  the club is deep.

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Over the course of 18 entertaining half hour episodes, we see Reynolds and McElhenney having to work hard to convince fans their interest in the club is genuine.

Meeting fans in the Racecourse, they win the majority over by talking about their desire to revitalise the club and the community.

But silver words are one thing.

Winning silverware is another.

The duo appoint the English actor and writer Humphrey Ker to be the Executive Director of the club to effectively be their eyes and ears on the other side of the Atlantic for them.

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The duo and Ker scour English and Welsh football for the best people in the business to help Wrexham secure promotion.

Fleur Robinson is appointed chief executive, while Shaun Harvey is coaxed into becoming a trusted advisor on club finances and the recruitment of key players and a manager to replace the incumbent Dean Keates.

Phil Parkinson, the respected former manager of Colchester United, Hull City, Charlton Athletic, Bradford City, Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland, is persuaded to drop two divisions to take on the project of securing promotion.

Critical signings are made, including the prolific strikers Shaun Mullins and, during the January transfer window, Ollie Palmer to boost the team's chances of successs.

Not everything is plain sailing, though, for Wrexham's manager and squad at the start of the season but in true 'Roy of the Rovers' fashion, it eventually starts to gel.

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There is an exciting push for promotion and the potential of silverware too with a trip to Wembley for the final of the FA Trophy.

Where 'Welcome to Wrexham' really scores, though, is its focus on the fans.

Over its 18 episode stretch, not only does it peek behind the curtain at the lives of its owners, manager and players but it tells the stories of many supporters and employees of the club 

We meet Wayne Jones, the owner of the neighbouring pub to the Racecourse, The Turf and Shaun Winter, a garrulous supporter and father of two sons who has recently separated from their mother.

There's Annette Gardener who has a collection of each season's shirts and never misses a game.

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Michael Hett, the lead singer of local pub band The Declan Swans, finds a song they have crafted about the takeover take off among the support but he also has to deal with a diagnosis of cancer.

Kerry Evans, a wheelchair bound fan, is amazed when she is officially employed as a Disability Officer by the club after volunteering in the role for years.

There's a heartbreaking episode built around Jonny Taylor, a fan who has been banned from attending matches because of his involvement in hooliganism and his devoted girlfriend, Saskia Barkeley, whose dad is the drummer in the indie rock band James and who has ambitions to be a police officer.

All of these individual stories contribute to a touching portrait of a community desperate to recover its pride.

They also resonate much deeper than the tongue in cheek banter of McElhenney and Reynolds who bring a 'Ted Lasso' energy to the show.

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While Reynolds and McElhenney bring a flashy, droll sense of humour to the show - doing voiceovers and filming spoofs of ESPN sports shows, a cookery show about how to make Welsh Cakes and even a mock talk show with Charlotte Church - these can sometimes feel like gimmicky distractions from the human drama captured in the show.

The same is true for the mock ad for club sponsors Ifor Williams Trailers - although to be fair, as Reynolds leverages his celebrity to land Wrexham a major sponsorship by TikTok, we also see him irritating staff by filming a slick commercial for the cybersecurity firm 1 Password with the players before a crucial game.

In another scene, we see Reynolds realise there could be 30 minutes extra time in an extremely tight game which is pure 'Ted Lasso'.

But it is to his credit that these sequences are not edited out.

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In addition to Church, there are celebrity cameos from the likes of David Beckham, Will Ferrell, Kit Harrington, McElhenney's wife and 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' co-star Kaitlin Olson and 'Ted Lasso' himself, Jason Sudeikis.

And while Reynolds and McElhenney are eager to apply the gloss to the show, their attachment to the club and to Wrexham itself comes across as deep , to well intentioned and genuine.

Thanks to some excellent editing by Mohammed El Manasterly, Curtis McConnell, Michael Brown, Peter Holmes, Janek Elise Cox, Peter Leninger and Marcella Serrano, the duo deliver 18 tightly constructed, vivacious episodes that keep you invested during a rollercoaster ride of a season for the club.

By focusing on the lives of fans and players, they have created a show that is oddly addictive.

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The opening season sets a pretty high standard that the next must match.

Can McElhenney, Reynolds and their  production team continue to unearth the stories they need?

Can they continue to strike the right balance between real life human drama and tongue in cheek humour?

If they can get that balance right, they will continue to find the back of the net.

('Welcome To Wrexham' was broadcast on FX in the United States between August 24-October 12, 2022 and was made available for streaming on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland on August 25, 2022)