Wrexham have been on an incredible journey under Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, not just as a football club, but also as a community.
The League One season now has just seven games to go for Wrexham; it doesn’t feel like two minutes since the big kick-off against Wycombe Wanderers back in August.
Ironically, it’s now Wrexham and Wycombe battling it out for second place in the League One table.
Wrexham sit three points clear right now, but Wycombe have a game in hand on Phil Parkinson’s side.
This could go right down to the wire, with Wrexham ultimately hoping to secure a third straight promotion.
Wrexham fans are embracing yet another promotion push, with the on-field product mirrored by major community impact.
Humphrey Ker on Wrexham ‘side effect’
With all due respect, Wrexham has never been so glamorous.
Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham takeover back in 2021 catapulted the club – and the community – into the worldwide mainstream.
Wrexham has now become a hot destination for foreign fans who have grown to love the club through the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ series.
The city has even become more appealing to those who would otherwise move away from Wrexham to Liverpool or Manchester.
That is the view of Humphrey Ker, who has spoken to former Wrexham goalkeeper Ben Foster on the Fozcast.
Ker suggested that the ‘really amazing side effect’ of Wrexham’s rise under McElhenney and Reynolds is that people now want to stay at around Wrexham – or even come back.
Ker feels that the impact of a successful football club is so far-reaching that people around Wrexham now feel ‘inspired’.
McElhenney and Reynolds have brought a feel-good factor back to Ker, and he considers he renewed optimism and excitement around the city to be ‘the biggest, craziest thing’ from the takeover, with fans sending him their personal works.
“You can donate $1million to a charity, or say $2million, because that’s what it cost for them to take over the club. Give $2million to a charity, they will do something brilliant and it’s amazing,” said Ker.
“But if you spend $2million on a football club, and you’re able to grow that football club and build it, it reaches so much further in a way, and it becomes a catalyst.
“The biggest, craziest thing we’ve seen with this Wrexham process is, I get so many people sending me songs and poems and books they’ve written, people from Wrexham, who are inspired now, they’re optimistic.
“I think Wrexham, for a long time, was a place where, if you were young and had something about you, you sort of left, you went to Manchester or Liverpool, maybe to London, maybe over here [United States], but you sort of got out of Wrexham and maybe your folks are still there and you come back to visit, but you went somewhere else to try and take your opportunity in life.
“Now we’re seeing people moving back to Wrexham, people that have moved to Manchester or Liverpool, who have made a success of themselves there, and they’re starting to be like ‘I want to do this at home, if I can do it in Wrexham, I’ll do it there’.
“That’s a really amazing side effect of the whole thing, it’s not just football,” he added.
Wrexham will hope this phenomenon extends to players
This is truly remarkable stuff, and the impact of Wrexham’s takeover has really rejuvenated the area as well as the club.
Wrexham will, though, hope that this phenomenon around the local area extends to young,Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have produced a ‘really amazing side effect’ as Wrexham success sparks change talented players.
Wrexham missed out on Neco Williams and Tom Lawrence despite the pair being from Wrexham.
It was a similar story with Harry Wilson, too, as he was brought up around Wrexham but slipped through the net.
Just to really hammer home Ker’s point, Williams and Wilson joined Liverpool, whilst Lawrence came through the Manchester United ranks.
That situation may just change in the coming years, with Wrexham hoping that more and more young players in the area choose to come through at the STōK Cae Ras rather than leave.