The nice thing about Wrexham is that Ryan Reynolds in particular seems to have taken the club and the town to heart, which is different from a lot of investors, although the cynic in me also thinks there is a lot of publicity promotion going on.Although that in itself means more income .
Despite my response with the Man City observation, I find I'm happy for Wrecsam. I don't watch the news, haven't seen their documentary on netflix or wherever.. I just have a memory of going there (2004 season?) and seeing how run-down and sad the place seemed, and I'm happy for those die-hard supporters who have finally seen a return to league football. I always look out for Scarborough's results, having gone to see them when I was younger on holiday, and look what happened to them. They are climbing the leagues the hard way again, and good on them. But I am pleased for Wrexham too. What can I say? If they get 3 more promotions in the next 3 seasons I will undoubtedly see them differently. It's a funny old game. As someone else said, football will never be a level playing field. It doesn't make it right, but thems the breaks.
Again I’m not sure where I’ve said that, don’t have problem with Wrexhams fans celebrating at all. Would be stupid to condemn people for being happy at their owns clubs success. I certainly never said we were better or more genuine fans, we’ve got a some horrendously fickle fans as well. Just don’t agree with the media’s portrayal of what’s going off over there as something other than tonnes of money being pushed into a club far and above anything that anyone else at that level is capable of which is vastly unfair. Which is something we’ve suffered against as well. Just saying it seems odd to celebrate a club like Wrexham and their millions when we regularly bemoan clubs for pushing millions into their club to our detriment.
No, I wasn't having a go, I was just following on my train of thought from your post, certainly the second part. We certainly can't claim to be the perfect example of living within our means though and pointing the finger at Wrexham. As a club we've been bankrolled by Patrick Cryne for years and are now reliant on the current owners putting money in. If that hadn't happened we wouldn't be able to begin to compete at the level most of us like to think we should be at. From my point of view Wrexham have got a lot luckier that us in that their owners seem genuine and are able to focus a lot of media attention and marketing on the club. That's not to say our current board aren't genuine either but, as yet, they've not been able to impact us like Reynolds and McIlhenny. It is what it is. I will say I'd find it difficult if we were owned by the likes of Man City and Newcastle's owners. Like all things there's lots of grey areas.
Where do you draw the line? When Patrick was bank rolling signings did you care that Stockport couldn't compete? Are you advocating no rich ownership or outside philanthropy just organic investment? Just let Man U and Liverpool dominate then. I love the Wrexham story, without entertainment and hope football dies a death. I'd like Brighton to win the FA Cup but they've had money pumped in at some point so lets not celebrate their story either.
Patrick didn’t bankroll us by outspending Manchester United though did he. Let’s also not pretend that Patrick was spending anything close in League One compared to what Wrexham are spending now. Wrexham spend at a League One level and we’re being told to celebrate them winning the league as a huge achievement. It’s not like we wouldn’t expect Wrexham to have more money to spend than Dorking for example. It’s the fact that the media are so intent on telling it as a struggle against all odds when Wrexham are outspending clubs like Portsmouth. Brighton have money put into them compared to us. But we aren’t a Premier League club and we certainly don’t generate the same revenue that Brighton do either. If Wrexham were a League One club and had won promotion it wouldn’t really be a problem because they spend at that level. But they’re spending double any other club in their league on agents fees alone. Wrexham throwing millions at getting out of non-League isn’t going to upset the power balance at the top of football, it only helps to make another financial imbalance further down the ladder. The context of what level we’re talking about is the most important point of the argument.
Ok I understand your point. But out spending everyone in the league has always taken place, Liverpool bought Barnes and Beardsley, Man United for decades. Unless we adopt a NFL draft type model ot will always be money that dictates success. However the Wrexham scenario is new, different to Salford imho as its naive celebrity and social media meets football, they might get them out of L2 but will probably get bored when they realise L1 is much tougher. In the meantime I'm enjoying the story, looking forward to series 2 on Disney and the Wrexham fans should milk it for all its worth.
You're right in a way but while you say they're outspending other clubs they also have revenue far in excess of other clubs. Why? Because they've actually put in a lot of effort and invested time and money into generating that revenue. People will say that the welcome to Wrexham documentary series is unfair because it's only due to Ryan Reynolds. Maybe it is but why should that be considered a bad thing? They had to agree to putting I the effort and allowing media there knowing that it generated money and publicity. Didn't we once turn down someone daft like maradonnas son because we didn't want any media attention? Had we been smarter we could have generated money and publicity but we couldn't be arsed. Had we put the effort in a couple of years ago we could have produced a documentary series focusing on Daryl dyke coming to Barnsley. We didn't, Wrexham have Can't really start knocking people for being better at generating publicity or revenue. We have just as much opportunity as them as do everyone. Reynolds isn't an a lister because of his acting ability, it's because of his personality and his ability to self promote. Can't knock that really.
They don’t generate the revenue, that’s why the owners had to put £5 million into the club in just one season to keep them debt free. They spent just short of £4 million pounds a season which is mainly on player wages, that’s an increase on the previous season of 294%. They’ve thrown League One money at a Non-League club and are using the star power of their owners and not of the club to generate money in return. You can’t tell me that if two regular millionaires bought Wrexham and threw the same amount of money in they’d be generating the same amount of money or media attention. And let’s be serious, who outside of our fans and a few US football enthusiasts would have watched a documentary about 6 months in a Covid hit Championship season. What if Dike had been a bust and never scored and we’d finished mid-table. You’d be the first on here telling us all how we wasted money and how poorly run the club is. We don’t have the weight of Hollywood backing us and it would unreasonable for even owners as useless as the last lot to catch flak for not producing a series surrounding a loan striker no one outside the US had heard of. The crux of the point is Wrexham have hugely overspent, to a point that if it was anyone else other than two popular actors and their mates, everyone would be chucking accusatory glances at them of buying promotions. A documentary about Wrexham certainly wouldn’t receive top billing on Disney+ without them.
But you’re again referring to two huge, world renown clubs and not a side in the 5th tier. Of course clubs with global fan bases, 50 odd trophies between them and world wide audiences are going to out spend everyone else. But no one is going round telling everyone how much of a wonderful story it is. Because it isn’t. Wrexham isn’t a wonderful story for anyone not objectively a Wrexham fan because it only supports the new football economy that if you throw a ridiculous amount of money at things that it’ll work. My problem isn’t with overspending in football because that’s always happened and no matter how much fans complain, will always happen. My problem is everyone been fed a story of heroism despite the gross financial imbalance that Wrexham have benefitted from and the idea that Wrexham is some sort of underdog story purely because they were crap for years.
BBC News - Gareth Bale: Ryan Reynolds tries to coax star out of retirement https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65396905
What a silly Hollywood Circus that place is getting. The old saying "How to be a millionaire" springs to mind. If you're a billionaire, buy a football club. Paying at least L1 wages in non-league. Not going to end well this, when the novelty wears off.
