Simon Jordan, a talkSPORT analyst and former owner of Crystal Palace, believes Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the owners of Wrexham, still have a lot of work ahead of them to accomplish their goals for the team.
When the Hollywood duo first took over the non-league team in February 2021, they caused a stir because of their audacious plan to propel the Red Dragons all the way to the Premier League.
But now that they are in third place in League Two and have won the National League with a record 111 points last season, they are well-positioned to earn back-to-back promotions.
The success of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary, which chronicles the adventures of the new owners, has been a major factor in Wrexham’s growth.
The club’s international visibility has been greatly enhanced by the Disney+ documentary, especially in the US, where thousands of new supporters attended a tour last summer to witness players like star scorer Paul Mullin in person.
Wrexham’s popularity has even been partially attributed, according to a Daily Mail story, to this week’s announcement that the EFL has received a 40% increase in overseas TV rights.
Simon Jordan says financial costs will rise for Wrexham’s owners
In response to a question on talkSPORT about whether he thought the club had more foreign supporters than Championship teams like Leeds and Leicester, Jordan stated, “They probably do because of the nature of the association with a major movie star.”
“We’ll see how it turns out, because if they are able to advance from League Two to League One this season, then everything will increase dramatically in terms of costs.
We know that this is a project that is supposedly being supported by an underlying TV agreement, so let’s see how much appetite they have.
“With due respect to their wealth, we’ll see how much ambition and enthusiasm they have for it when it comes to the fact that their TV deal only goes so far and they have to write out proper cheques.”
Reynolds and McElhenney have already demonstrated their qualifications in numerous ways when it comes to demonstrating their dedication to the Wrexham cause.
This summer, plans to build a new 5,500-seat stand at the Racecourse Ground’s Kop end are anticipated to proceed.
The support Phil Parkinson, the manager of Wrexham, has received during each transfer window has helped the team’s chances of promotion by bringing in major players like Steven Fletcher and James McClean.
Humphrey Ker, the club’s director, also disclosed last week that plans for a new training facility were going to be the subject of an impending “big conversation.”
Jordan pokes fun at contrasting fame of co-owners
Jordan made fun of the two’s relative levels of popularity while remaining modest in his overall support for them despite their accomplishments.
“Well done to them, they’ve managed to turn an underperforming Welsh football team into something people are talking about right now,” he remarked. I respect that very much.
However, I don’t want to overreact and give them more credit than they actually deserve.
“Many people are interested in them because they look like Ryan Reynolds.” The other guy is the one who carries his stuff, but Ryan Reynolds really draws the crowd.
Subsequently, he stated: “I’m not underestimating the importance of Ryan Reynolds’s commitment to Wrexham or the likelihood that it will have had a surge in the US because to the presence of a well-known actor with tens of millions of fans vying for the title.
“We’ll see how long that interest stays with Wrexham when he shuffles off back to polishing his Hollywood star and is no longer interested.”
It remains to be seen how long Jordan’s Hollywood dream at Wrexham lasts, but following his extended tirade, talkSPORT colleagues Jim White and Danny Murphy couldn’t help but poke fun at him.
Jordan acknowledged feeling jealous of Reynolds when asked if he was: “You’ve got to have an element of jealousy when you’ve got a major Hollywood movie star that looks like he does.”
