Two Chewbaccas handed out flyers to passersby. No one making their way towards the Turf batted an eyelid, but then again, for five years now, a touch of Hollywood has become pretty much the norm in Wrexham.
Ninety minutes before kick-off the city’s most famous public house was heaving. Lying in the shadow of the Racecourse Ground, it is the watering hole of choice for locals, and, thanks to landlord Wayne Jones’s prominent role in Welcome to Wrexham, the Netflix documentary following the club’s many fortunes, a tourist attraction.
The way the pub is now – a thriving establishment, packed with happy faces and vibrating with contented nattering – is symbolic of the meteoric shift that has occurred since Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac (previously McElhenney) paid £2m to become the football club’s guardians half a decade ago on Monday.
It was a business, community and club, desperate for a lifeline, some sunshine, a boost. Post takeover, all involved have gotten that and then some.
As Jones spoke from the Turf’s single file entrance, he politely broke off to greet those he knows well and newbies wanting to say hello. He is grateful as a businessman that the customers flow as freely as the pints, but Wrexham’s on field success is more important.
The club is “in my DNA, like it is thousands of supporters”, he said. “It has been a very quirky, very interesting five years. So far, so good.” Underplaying it much, Wayne?
On the night Reynolds and Mac’s purchase was announced, Wrexham earned three points against Altrincham at FC United of Manchester’s Broadhurst Park. As a result, they moved into the National League’s playoff spots. A mere 1,459 days later they are in the Championship’s top six despite this disappointing 2-0 defeat by Millwall.
Unsatisfactory, yes, but the odd bump will not get fans such as Peter Cheshire too down. A regular since 1968, and an ever-present at home and away this season, the now, as opposed to 2021’s then, remains scarcely believable for Cheshire. “It has changed my life,” he said. He was not being hyperbolic.
“It has helped my mental health. I suffer from depression and that has changed a lot since the takeover. I’m happier here [in the ground], which makes me happier when I go to work.”
The project has not been without its blips. First, they missed out on the playoffs in 2020-21, before losing in the semi-finals 12 months later. By then, any initial local scepticism had melted, replaced by the warmest of embraces.
For Cheshire, the doubts were erased within the early months when it became clear Reynolds and Mac would invest on the field, in the men’s and women’s teams, and off it. To emphasise the point, he gazed across to the work on a new Kop stand that will open in 2027.
Since those early disappointments, Wrexham have achieved promotion, after promotion, after promotion. An unprecedented triple jump. A fourth in a row, and with it the Premier League, could be 18 games away.
That has always been the aim and stating so draws far less laughter now than it did when all this began. Wrexham have global reach, blue chip sponsors and A-listers such as Channing Tatum and Will Ferrell dropping in for the odd game.
Yet there are plenty of reminders that humility trumps all. First-team players change at the ground, make their way to training in their own cars, before returning to shower, lunch and gym. Not out of the ordinary below the Football League, but certainly more unusual in the Championship.
Then there is managing the limited on-site space, which has some staff feeling as if they are playing a constant game of human Tetris. Indeed, the CEO, Michael Williamson, who, among other roles, spent four-and-a-half years in key positions at Inter, works from a room that legally compliant landlords would not be able to offer up as a bedroom.
Success has brought with it envy. Way back when the club was still punching its way out of non-league football (a whole three years), it was a fairytale story for some, something to delight in. Wholesome. Quaint. Unthreatening.
But now little old Wrexham are a couple of sound left-right combos from being a top 20 team, there is much sneering. Some would have you believe that Reynolds and Mac were the first to introduce money to football. In any case, the outcome of that particular match is not always matrimony.
Wrexham’s manager, Phil Parkinson, who succeeded Dean Keates in July 2021, does not get the credit he deserves. It is all very well, as Wrexham did last summer, buying 13 players for around £30m, but weaving so many new strands into something coherent takes some doing. Parkinson has managed it successfully and will doubtless do so again with January arrivals Davis Keillor-Dunn, Bailey Cadamarteri and Zak Vyner. “I thought we’d survive this season, but down the bottom end,” Cheshire says.
“It’s about moments,” Parkinson said. He and Wrexham have had plenty of those.
