Wrexham co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have turned the club’s fortunes around almost overnight. But how have they done it so quickly?
Wrexham have earned promotion to the Championship in historic fashion. Phil Parkinson has now steered the club to an unthinkable and previously unachievable three-straight promotions and Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney deserve as much praise as anyone.
They’ve built a global brand out of a club that spent 15 long years in the National League. They’ve used their global recognition to bring in sponsors and a global following too, no doubt helped massively by the Welcome to Wrexham docuseries.
Season four of Welcome to Wrexham comes out later in May and it’ll help to bring yet more attention to the club as they gear up for the Championship, having finished their season with comfortable 2-0 win away at Lincoln City last time out.
Phil Parkinson hails Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s trust at Wrexham
One thing that’s become a recurring theme of Reynolds and McElhenney’s success at the Racecourse is how they leave footballing matter to those in the know. Too often we see football owners with no real knowledge of the game try to take matters into their own hands. But not Reynolds and McElhenney.
Speaking to Leader Live, Parkinson has explained how the Hollywood pair have trusted the likes of himself and those behind the scenes at Wrexham to get the job done. They’ve not become overly-intervened in footballing matters at the club which has in turn allowed Parkinson and co to bring this level of success.
Parkinson said: “It’s a job done with great intelligence from them as people. The public don’t really see as much as what we see, the humbleness of them as people and I love it when they’re over here because the support they give the lads and myself is second to none.
“They must think this game is easy! You look at people who buy football clubs and there’s loads of examples recently. I’ve read what they’re saying and I think, ‘that’s going to be an expensive learning curve for you because it’s like any industry’.
“If you go into an industry and you buy a business, you employ people to run that business for you unless you’ve got great experience and that’s what they’ve done. They’ve trusted us and that’s been the key element of the success.”
Wrexham handed £40m boost after promotion to the Championship
Expect Reynolds and McElhenney’s role to stay unchanged ahead of promotion to the Championship. But one thing they can do is allow more money to flow into the transfer market, which will be massively boosted by promotion to the Championship.
Speaking to Wrexham Insider, football finance expert Adam Williams revealed how Wrexham could have an extra £40million in revenue next season through commercial, broadcast, and matchday streams.
If Reynolds and McElhenney can give Parkinson some spending money to compete in the Championship next season then there’s no reason to suggest why a fourth-straight promotion can’t be on the cards.
Clearly, what they’re doing right now is working.