Greetings from Although Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s documentary Wrexham has won an Emmy, they may eventually need to take the cameras down.
Consequently, what happened?
The Red Dragons have a developing global fan base as Football League talents like Paul Mullin and Elliot Lee become well-known figures well beyond North Wales thanks to the support of Hollywood co-owners at SToK Racecourse. Although athletes have become accustomed to unusual expectations in a fly-on-the-wall series created by Reynolds and McElhenney, this exposure may not be to everyone’s taste.
WHAT EDWARDS SAID
In an interview with GOAL, former Wrexham player Carlos Edwards, who played for the team for five years at the start of the twenty-first century, responded to the question of whether he would have preferred life on the big screen by saying, in association with OLBG: Both, in a manner, but you also need to set aside business in order to concentrate on training and games. Distractions are bound to arise during your journey. Personally, I wouldn’t permit it in the locker room either before or after a game. Whether you win, lose, or tie, you want to take some time to ponder after the match. It’s not healthy to have that kind of distraction. You would just like to sit.
THE LARGER IMAGE
When asked if the presence of cameras prevents some things from being stated that should, Edwards responded, “I think so.” Sometimes, when something goes really wrong, people are afraid to speak up, as my wife and I have discussed. It’s shouda, woulda, coulda, and avoiding stating it right away and catching it early. Ultimately, you need to lead by example; you can’t just have cameras running all over the place to garner some local publicity for the team. It’s beneficial, but you can accomplish those kinds of things outside of the locker rooms in other ways.
DID YOU KNOW?
It has been easy for Wrexham to live with the added attention that television cameras bring as positive results have become par for the course. Were that situation to change, then Reynolds and McElhenney may have to rethink their approach. Edwards said on cameras being put away if collective fortunes take a turn for the worse: “That’s it. That’s the pros and cons of it. You have the cameras when you’re winning, and then you have that little dip in form and all of a sudden they don’t want the cameras in because it’s a distraction. Why wasn’t it a distraction before you had that dip in form? You need to understand that things need to be done there and then, not when it’s not going the way that you want it to. You have to set certain standards. As a manager, as a coach, you don’t want all that distraction going on behind you. You want to concentrate, because as a coach your head is already going 24 hours a day – you have agents, board members, everyone, you can’t even sleep. You have a week to prepare your team for a game and then you have in the background, the cameras will be there for the documentary before and after the game. All things like that you have to study. We have to understand that these boys have a job to do. I don’t think you can go to a corporate office when they have a board meeting and have cameras doing a documentary, so why should it be in the changing room?”
TELL ME MORE
It has been plain sailing for Reynolds and McElhenney since their stunning takeover of Wrexham in the spring of 2021, with only the odd wobble being endured, and they are yet to experience any kind of backlash from a fan base that has taken them into their hearts. Football supporters can be a fickle bunch, though, and Edwards said of superstar co-chairmen needing to brace themselves for when things are not going quite so well: “You live and you learn. Until that time, they will have a dip in form and I’m hoping that it is not one of those dips where everyone starts pulling their hair out and starts pointing fingers, but when that reality hits – which at some point it will, maybe not this season – I hope that they understand that they have signed up for this and not try to take a step back. If you are in it, you have to be in it fully. If you don’t have a lottery ticket, you don’t have a chance. If you are in it, you have to stick with it in the good times and the bad times. You look at it, in League Two they are getting over 10,000 fans – it’s unbelievable.
WHAT NEXT FOR WREXHAM?
Wrexham are flying high in the League Two table at present, with Phil Parkinson piecing together another promotion bid. The Red Dragons claimed the National League title in record-breaking style last season – earning them an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas – and they are now just two points away from hitting the fourth tier summit, while boasting a game in hand on leaders Stockport.
