GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JULY 18: A general view during the pre-season friendly match between Rangers and Newcastle at Ibrox Stadium on July 18, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
The “big two” in Scottish football are without a doubt the fierce rivals Rangers and Celtic, and they have been for a while. For the foreseeable future, the two will undoubtedly continue to dominate events as they have done throughout the years.
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) could have experienced a disruption if Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, two well-known actors, had not been there.
The pair paid £2 million for the Welsh team Wrexham AFC in November 2020 [Independent, June 26, 2023]. The club’s executive director, Humphrey Ker, has since disclosed that McElhenney’s original plan was to purchase Scottish team Arbroath.
In an interview with BBC Scotland’s Sacked in the Morning podcast on October 24, Ker stated: “Rob immediately said, ‘Well, what about an Irish club?'” because Scotland, Northern Ireland, or Ireland are the origins of his family. I regret to inform you that I felt the English game’s ceiling was that much farther away, therefore I was a little bit of a party spoiler.
Because my undergraduate roommate was a Red Lichties supporter, I have to go to Arbroath to support my preferred Scottish football team. In the end, I stated, if we went to Arbroath, invested in that squad, and helped them achieve rapid promotion to the Premier League, you would eventually face Celtic and Rangers.
Hearts games were something I used to attend when I lived in Edinburgh. There was a time when all the Lithuanian players arrived and it looked like Glasgow’s big two would actually face competition.
However, it would take very little time to go from Arbroath to a Scottish Premiership team that is sort of in the middle of the standings. And then there would be this issue where the huge dudes there would just keep hitting on you. It would just be challenging.
The Americans ultimately settled on Wrexham, and the planned attempted “assault” on both Rangers and Celtic [Daily Record, October 25] was abandoned.
The team has returned to the English Football League under its new ownership, and thus far, it has been a success. Furthermore, Wrexham is now ranked third in League Two and is expected to advance quickly to League One.
