While the two clubs may be many miles apart, there’s no denying there is a rivalry developing between Birmingham City and Wrexham, but it’s the latter who just came out on top in the latest battle.
Admittedly, Birmingham City were the top dogs in League One last season by quite some distance. The Blues waltzed to the title in style, and they’re widely expected to achieve great things in 2025/26, too.
Wrexham have enjoyed plenty of success themselves, and will join the Blues in the Championship this season thanks to their third-successive promotion.
With the two clubs having superstar owners, it’s hard not to make comparisons between them. But, if there was any doubt before, it seems popular opinion has firmly swung in the favour of Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds ahead of the new season.
- READ MORE: Supercomputer writes off Wrexham promotion hopes already with shocking Championship prediction
Birmingham City docuseries backfires dramatically
Everybody knows about the Welcome to Wrexham docuseries. It’s one of the major factors that has helped put the Red Dragons on the map, earning the club a global following thanks to the behind-the-scenes insight the show offers.
Birmingham followed suit by releasing their own docuseries last week, but it’s safe to say Built In Birmingham: Brady & the Blues has not had anywhere near the desired effect.
The five-episode series showed the mass overhaul carried out at Birmingham last summer in the wake of their relegation to League One, with Tom Brady featuring heavily. Fans across the EFL have noted how Brady seemingly disrespected Wayne Rooney and generally got very involved in the footballing process at the club.
Suffice it to say, that has not gone down well. For much of the show, Brady appears to approach the situation with a degree of arrogance and stubbornness, while also quite clearly displaying that he doesn’t really know all that much about football.
He may be a legendary sportsman, but his attitude towards those around him during the course of the series does Brady no favours and has led to many neutrals starting to really turn against the whole Birmingham City project as a result.
- READ MORE: How Wrexham’s summer spending compares to Southampton’s transfer business ahead of season opener
Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds are the perfect owners
We’re sure Wrexham owners Rob and Ryan will be sat there quietly smiling to themselves after seeing the way the Birmingham docuseries PR stunt dramatically failed last week.
Obviously, the pair do not hold any grudges or personal ills against Brady and Birmingham really. It’s a healthy, competitive rivalry if anything, but they’ll no doubt see this is an indirect win for the Wrexham project.
What the Birmingham docuseries does do is inadvertently prove that Rob and Ryan have absolutely nailed their approach to running a football club. At no point have they ever claimed to know enough about football to have a major say in how the team operates, and that’s quite refreshing.
The pair have been wholly honest and handled the takeover process with heartfelt sincerity every step of the way. It’s abundantly clear that they simply want to do what’s best for the football club and the community and achieve a collective success with everyone involved at Wrexham.
Reynolds describes the journey as the greatest four years of his life, while McElhenney has always been clear about his vision for Wrexham, which is to improve all aspects of life for those in the town and bring the football club back to where they feel it belongs.
Many had suspected the Wrexham move from Rob and Ryan would be a gimmick and a vanity project. That couldn’t be further from the truth, and Tom Brady just proved what the opposite side of that coin could look like.